Along the Way
by BBrownize
Summary: Harry mistakably falls back in time to his parents' sixth year. He strives to get along with the Marauders as Dumbledore searches for a solution to returning Harry to his own time. However, Harry falls in love with a certain godfather of his...
1. Chapter 1

Meet the Parents

Harry fell to the floor with a thump. Everything went blank for a second, and then he realised what had happened.

_Damn Malfoy,_ he thought.

It all flooded back to him. He had been partnered with Malfoy in Potions and the stupid git had to go and purposely add the wrong ingredient to Harry's potion, tipping the cauldron over in the process and spilling it all over Harry. Not like it wasn't ruined already, but… still, he had to kill Malfoy. Staggering to his feet, Harry wondered why he was on the fifth floor corridor and not in the dungeons. Shrugging, he headed towards the Gryffindor dormitory, not particularly wanting to discuss the meaning of his actions with Professor Snape.

Sighing, he reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Password?" she grumbled.

"Fiddlesticks," Harry replied.

She stared at him. "The password has never been 'fiddlesticks', boy, now run along unless you can come up with the real password."

"But that was the password last week!" he exclaimed.

"Shoo!"was the irritated reply.

_Great_, Harry thought. Since when had the password changed?

"Problem?" a vaguely familiar voice came from behind him.

Turning, Harry's eyes widened at the sight of the person in front of him. Tall, long dark hair, handsome features, a tanned, sixteen-year-old Sirius Black posed with a smirk on his face.

"Sirius…" Harry murmured, eyes wide. His godfather was alive in this time?

"And you are?" Sirius asked impatiently. However, Harry, utterly confused by the retort, simply stared for at least a minute before rushing past a surprised Sirius and in the certain direction of the Headmaster's office.

Thankfully, he spotted Dumbledore emerging from behind the gargoyle as he arrived.

"Professor!" Harry gasped.

"Why, hello! And who might you be?" Dumbledore asked cheerfully.

"Sir, it's me, Harry!"

"I'm afraid I do not know of any Harrys in Hogwarts, you will have to fill me in."

"But sir, it's me! Why are you saying you don't know me?" Harry began to get frustrated. Why was his day turning out so bad? "This isn't funny, Professor!" he warned.

Dumbledore's eyes gleamed, to Harry's complete annoyance.

"I assure you," he responded, "I am not trying to be. Why don't you come up to my office and we can have some tea, hmm?"

Harry sighed and followed Dumbledore along the spiral staircase and into his office.

"Have a seat."

Harry took his usual chair in front of Dumbledore's desk. He waited patiently for an explanation.

"So, you are Harry," Dumbledore stated. He appeared pensive for a moment. He then fixed his blue gaze on Harry. "Am I right in supposing your surname is Potter?" he said finally.

"Er… yes," Harry answered, confused.

The old wizard nodded, still looking thoughtful.

"Harry Potter…" he mused. "And am I correct in guessing you are somehow related to James Potter?"

Harry frowned. "Yes, he is – _was_, my father. But sir, you already know this."

Dumbledore couldn't have looked more thoughtful.

"What was the last thing you were doing, before you bumped into me?" he asked.

"Well, I was trying to get into the dormitory, but the Fat Lady wouldn't let me."

"And before that?"

"I was in Potions with Professor Snape, when Malfoy knocked my potion all over me and I ended up on one of the corridors on the fifth floor." Harry looked curiously at Dumbledore. "Why?"

"Well," Dumbledore began, "It seems to me that whatever you put in that potion has the unusual ability of sending a wizard, such as yourself, to another dimension."

"Huh?"

"You may have travelled back in time, my dear boy."

Harry stared at him. "How? I thought that was only possible with a time turner?"

"As did I, but you have proved us both wrong."

"So… what am I supposed to do?"

"Of course, since we don't know how to get you back, you will have to settle in here for a while. I presume you are in Gryffindor?"

"Er… yes."

"Excellent! Just like your father. What year are you in?"

"I just began my sixth," Harry explained.

"Have you ever wondered, Harry, what your sixteen-year-old father would appear to be like?"

Harry frowned. "No," he said slowly. "I'm too busy wondering what my father would be like at all." He received a questioning look. "James Potter is dead in my time; he died trying to save me when I was a baby."

Dumbledore's eyes closed in what could only be sorrow. When they opened again, he smiled. "Then you will finally be able to meet him."

_Was he always this optimistic?_ Harry wondered.

"But sir, how am I meant to tell him that I have come from the future and that I'm his son? He'll think I'm insane!"

"Ah, well, you will just not tell him then. We shall have to give you a new name."

Harry sat back, thoughtful. What should he use as a name?

"Hmm... How about, Harry James?" offered Dumbledore.

Harry laughed. "Wouldn't that be a bit obvious?"

Dumbledore's eyes sparkled. "Do you think they will guess?"

"Er… no."

"Harry James it is then. Now, I shall have to inform Professor McGonagall about this, as she is the Deputy Headmistress. You can stay here until we find a solution to getting you back."

"Okay, sir." Harry took that as a dismissal, and just as he reached for the door –

"Oh, and Harry, does Severus Snape really become a professor here?"

"Um, well, yes," Harry began, and then he thought about it. A brilliant idea came to mind. "But,' he hurried, "there are plenty of _other_ talented people you could hire…" he hinted.

Dumbledore chuckled, and the eyes behind his half moon glasses sparkled.

Harry wandered back to the Gryffindor dorms.

_Damn!_ he thought. He had forgotten to ask Dumbledore for the password! Cursing, he looked around for any wandering Gryffindors. Almost instantly he spotted a flash of red and gold disappear round a corner.

"Wait!" Harry shouted, and sped after the person, only to meet a – _THUMP._

"Watch where you're going! Oh, it's you again. Who the hell are you?"

"Sirius!" someone shouted. "Come on, we're gonna be late – Hey, who are you?"

Harry stared in shock at the handsome young face of his father.

"I haven't seen you before."

"Hey, James, he looks just like you –"

"What are you two doing now? McGonagall will kill us – Hi, who are you?" The young, weary face of Remus Lupin appeared from behind Sirius' shoulder, his expression going from distressed to curious.

"My name is Harry," he finally managed. "Harry James."

"Are you new here? I've never seen you around before," James said.

"Yeah, I just moved here from another school."

"Which school?" Sirius asked.

"Durmstrang," Harry replied, since it was the first thing that popped into his head.

"Cool, what house are you in?" James questioned.

"Gryffindor."

"Is that why you were harassing the Fat Lady to get into the dorm?" Sirius asked.

"Er… yes, but I wasn't harassing her."

"What year are you in?" James questioned. "We're in sixth."

Harry groaned inwardly. He knew where this would go. "Same as you," he replied.

"You look younger," Sirius stated, staring at Harry.

"I know," was Harry's response. He sighed. _How many times?_ He blamed his short height and younger look on the cupboard he was shunted in for eleven years. It irritated him to no end.

"All right, let's talk about this later; we need to get to Transfiguration!" With that, Remus sped off.

Harry hoped they were finally done questioning him.

"Poor Moony, always in a rush," Sirius mused.

"So, where are you going now?" James asked Harry. "And yeah, you do look a lot like me."

_Hope lost._

"Maybe he's your long lost twin," Sirius stated.

"Uh, I don't think I am."

James snorted. "You could be, for all I know."

"Okay... I don't know where I'm supposed to be going right now, so…"

"So?" Sirius encouraged.

"So… I'll just go over here…" Harry muttered, whilst slowly edging away from the Marauders.

Sirius laughed. "You can't escape from us that easily. Come on, you can come to class with us, I'm sure McGonagall won't mind…" Grabbing Harry by the wrist, he ran round the corner, somewhat dragging Harry with him, whilst James sped after them.

"So, Harry," James said breathlessly as they ran through countless corridors and halls. "You don't happen to be interested in Quidditch, do you?"

Harry's face brightened immediately, despite the fact he was being hauled along helplessly by Sirius.

"Of course I like Quidditch! How can anyone _not_ like Quidditch?" This time he looked nonplussed.

James laughed. "In that case, I'm sure we'll get along just fine."

Suddenly Sirius stopped, causing Harry immediately to go flying into his back, knocking them both over. Sirius sat up, looking slightly ruffled, then he grinned.

"You have a nasty habit of doing that, don't you?" It was more of a statement than a question.

Harry smiled sheepishly in reply and helped him up. They followed James into Professor McGonagall's classroom, but said professor did not look too happy.

"Where have you been?" she demanded disapprovingly. "The lesson started fifteen minutes ago, Potter, Black – and who might you be?" She looked inquiringly at Harry.

"His name is Harry James, Professor," Sirius answered for him. "He's a new student from Durmstrang."

"Very well," McGonagall sighed. "Take a seat, Mr. James. I assume you know that this lesson is all to do with transfiguration. Let it be known that I do not accept laziness or complete lack of attention in my class."

She eyed Sirius and James. "Right, today, as I have already told the class, we are covering Animagi."

The lesson went well, as far as Harry was concerned. He wondered if the Marauders had already completed their Animagus transformations yet. Sirius and James sat on either side of him, and they had a long agreeable discussion on how great Quidditch was. Abruptly, the conversation turned onto 'marauding'.

"What's your school like, Harry? Do you get into a lot of trouble?" James asked mischievously.

"Yeah, but not intentionally, if that's what you mean."

Harry received a strange look. "You get into trouble for no reason?" was the nonplussed reply.

"How can you get into trouble for no reason?" Sirius asked.

"Erm…"

"Give us an example," James said.

"Well... There was this one time when I got in trouble with the Ministry for –"

"With the _Ministry_?" James exclaimed, impressed. "What the hell did you do to cause that?"

"Well…" Harry began, knowing this would go nowhere. "To keep it short, I saved my fugitive godfather from a hundred or so Dementors on the school grounds," he said simply.

He was stared at for a while, until the two Marauders burst out laughing.

"Like we're gonna believe that," Sirius stated.

Harry shrugged. "Believe what you want." _Knew it_.

"Why was he a fugitive?"

"Huh?" Harry turned around to see Remus looking at him questioningly.

"Your godfather, why was he a fugitive?' Remus repeated.

"Oh, he was accused of murdering thirteen Muggles in an open street and the murder of Peter –" He stopped dead, realizing what he was about to reveal.

"Peter who?"

"Never mind." _How could he have been so stupid?_

"No, go on, tell us," James said, interested once more.

"It doesn't matter." _So foolish._

"Does," Sirius retorted.

"Doesn't." _Idiotic._

"Does."

"Doesn't." _Horrifically imprudent._

"Does."

"Okay, okay," James interrupted. "You don't have to tell us, but I don't see why not."

"It just doesn't matter." _Just a bit rash._

"Does." Sirius smirked.

Both Remus and James groaned, whilst Harry and Sirius shared a grin.

Harry had a feeling his stay here wasn't going to be so bad after all.

After the lesson, Harry was poked and prodded (mostly by Sirius) up to the Gryffindor common room.

"Hey look, there's a spare bed for you, Harry."

Sirius leapt into his own bed. Then he smirked. "Care to join me, Harry?"

Harry felt the blush rise in his cheeks and smiled. _Maybe another time, Sirius_.

"Oh, come on, don't be such a wuss."

"I'm not being a wuss." _You are._

"Are to."

"Are not." _Where did that come from?_

"Are to."

"Are not." _You really ought to stop this._

"Please stop that," Remus muttered.

"Are to."

"Are not." _At least Remus agrees._

"Please," Remus asked again pointlessly.

"Are to."

"Are not." _One day…_

"That's enough." By now, Remus was getting fairly irritated.

"Are to –"

"STOP!" Remus yelled.

"Don't be such a killjoy, Moony," Sirius retorted.

Harry grinned.

Remus closed his eyes in frustration. "Where's James?" he asked suddenly.

Sirius shrugged. "Probably stalking Evans around the castle." He stretched himself out on the bed and looked bored.

A minute later, Remus asked, "Harry?"

Harry jumped slightly from staring out of the window.

"Is that true what you said about your godfather?"

"Yes, wouldn't be much point in lying, would there?"

"S'pose not."

"But how exactly did you take on a hundred Dementors?" Sirius asked disbelievingly.

Harry shrugged. "I guess I have a strong Patronus."

"Show us it," James said eagerly as he walked in.

Harry sighed, took out his wand, and said, "_Expecto Patronum!" _A huge, silvery stag emerged from the tip of his wand to gallop through the door.

Suddenly gasps were heard from the common room.

"Wicked!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" James asked, astounded.

Harry shrugged again. "The DADA professor taught me how to do it because the Dementors affect me more than most people, and the Ministry was letting them roam all over the school grounds."

Harry leaned against the windowsill.

"To catch your godfather?"

"Yeah."

"How come we've never heard about this?"

"Dunno, maybe 'cause it happened three years ago."

"Why do Dementors affect you more than most people?" Sirius questioned.

Harry shrugged again. "Bad memories," he said.

"What happened?" Sirius was eager now.

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "I don't really want to talk about it, sorry."

"Fair enough." To Harry's surprise, Sirius let the subject drop.

"Let's go play Quidditch," said James. "Do you have a broom, Harry?"

"Er… I do, but I don't have a clue where it is… Or where any of my stuff is as a matter of fact…"

"They'll probably bring it up later, come on! You can borrow one of the school brooms!" And with that he sped out of the room, Harry on his heels.

Ten minutes later, Harry found himself gasping for breath outside the broom shed.

A second later, James appeared from inside, grumbling about indecent respect towards the brooms.

"Here," he said. "Sorry, it's the best I could find."

Harry shrugged away the apology, mounted and kicked off. Instantly all his problems were swept away as the sheer joy of flight overcame him. He felt immensely happy and free.

In the distance, Harry noticed a small, black dot leaping from the castle steps. Figuring it was Sirius chasing after them, he sped towards the castle with the intention of giving Sirius a lift.

"Sirius!" he yelled.

Harry met him at the bottom of the steps, looking slightly bemused. He grinned at him.

"Want a lift?"

His grin was reflected in his young godfather's face, and Sirius mounted the broom behind him. Once they had left the ground, Harry asked Sirius whether he was on the team.

"Yeah," Sirius replied. "Beater, and James is Chaser. Is there a team at Durmstrang?"

"Yep, I'm Seeker."

"Cool, we could do with a new Seeker since the last one resigned. Just try not to beat James when it comes to Quidditch."

"I reckon I could beat him." Harry already knew of the amazing flying talent his father held.

Sirius laughed. "You may be good, but I've never met anyone as good as James."

Harry gave him a quirky smile. "We'll see."

They arrived at the pitch and Sirius clambered onto his own broom.

"Oy! Sirius!" James yelled from above. "Since you're down there, let out the Snitch!"

"Aye, aye, Captain!" was the shouted reply. "Try and get it, Harry!"

Harry observed as Sirius let out the miniscule ball, which abruptly darted towards the other side of the pitch. Harry decided to give it five seconds, before bolting after it.

The fluttering ball whizzed upwards, beginning to rise higher and higher, and as Harry pursued it, the ground gradually got smaller. The snitch suddenly decided to stop. It hovered for a minute, just as Harry was catching up, before lunging into a vertical plummet towards the ground. Pulling into the dive, Harry felt everything around him vanish as his mind was set on one thing – _catch the snitch._ He was going down, down, so fast it seemed impossible for him to breathe, but he was catching up. _Faster, _he thought. _Faster. _In seconds, the ground appeared only meters away. Harry plunged down, reached out, and after a close swinging dive directly above the ground, he caught the angry, fluttering ball between his fingers.

"Bloody hell!" Harry heard as he landed. "He's just as good as you, James!"

He walked over to the two as they touched ground, staring at him in disbelief.

"I don't think we need to do Seeker tryouts anymore," James said with a grin.

"Seeker tryouts, my arse," Sirius retorted.

They laughed and cheered Harry as they made their way slowly back to the castle. They arrived back at the common room to quiet chattering. Remus stood by the fire, and next to him was –

Harry scowled, his heart immediately overflowing with hatred towards the small, mousey boy.

"Hey, Peter," Sirius greeted his friend. "Where've you been all day? You weren't at any of the lessons."

Pettigrew stuttered a reply stating that he had been visiting his sick grandmother. Harry's eyes narrowed. He knew exactly where Peter had been.

"You alright, Harry?" Remus asked him with a frown.

Harry didn't reply.

"This is Harry," James introduced him. "Harry, meet Peter."

"Pleased to meet you," Harry said darkly, before retreating to the dorms.

"What's up with him?" He heard.

Sighing, Harry sat uncomfortably on his new four-poster, trying to figure out how he was meant to be civil towards the one person he hated most.

The stinking rat who had caused the death of his parents.

A week later, Harry sat in the Owlery, mostly wondering about how Hermione and Ron were getting on. He was beginning to miss them and, he had to admit, he was coming close to missing the wrath of Snape, of all people. Life at Hogwarts was much different with the Marauders; Harry was rarely stared at, and when he was, it was only to contemplate that he was 'the new guy'. He realized that even with Voldemort at large, even in this time, he had absolutely nothing to worry about. Voldemort wouldn't even know who Harry was were he ever to come across him. His face darkened at the thought of what Voldemort was doing.

"Harry?" He heard the familiar voice.

Harry sighed, then said with a forced smile, "Hi, Sirius."

"What's up?"

"Nothing, just thinking."

"C'mon, I'm not taking that. Tell me what's wrong."

Harry shrugged. "I was just thinking about… my parents."

Sirius frowned. "Is something wrong with them?"

"They're dead," Harry said quietly. He didn't look up to see the shocked look on his godfather's face. Sirius sat down beside him.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Harry shrugged and stared through the window. It was raining. Dark clouds littered a darker sky. "Voldemort."

It was an uninformative answer, but Harry knew Sirius would get it. Voldemort was still at large in this time.

Sirius was quiet for a moment. "Sorry for bringing it up…"

Harry shook his head. "Doesn't matter… Happened a long time ago."

"I suppose I kind of know how you feel, just maybe in a different way." Harry looked at him confusedly.

Sirius sighed. "I ran away from home, last year. Stayed with James for the summer."

"What happened?" Harry asked, interested now.

"I don't know." Sirius sighed. "I guess I finally lost it. With my family, it's all pureblood, and anything less is unworthy."

"But you disagree?"

"Yes, but I'm the only one. My mother.–" His fists clenched. "My mother despises anyone who thinks otherwise, and with her, no one else BUTher is right. I am a disgrace to the family, a rat with all the mice, and for it I get –" He stopped and closed his eyes in pain, obviously not wanting to continue. But Harry pushed him.

"You get what?" he asked quietly.

Sirius looked at him strangely, before slowly pulling his robe off. Turning around, he carefully pulled up his shirt, and Harry gasped at what was revealed. All across Sirius' back, from right shoulder down to left hip, were long, thick, vicious gashes.

"They… they lashed you?" Harry whispered in horror.

Sirius dressed quickly. "Not my father, he's not as low as that. But my mother…"

"You don't have to talk about it."

"I know I don't, but I want you to know."

"Why?"

Sirius looked like he was struggling for words. He settled for, "Because you're different."

"I am?"

"Yeah, you are."

Harry looked at him strangely, but said nothing. Ever since he had been here, he had tried to get as close as he could to his godfather. Strange as it was, he often chose Sirius over James. But, he supposed, he _had _known Sirius longer. The week had passed fairly quickly, and Sirius had shown him to all the lessons, leant him things, taught him new spells (and vice versa), he had been more kind and helpful to Harry than anyone had ever been. Only a few times had Harry glimpsed the Sirius he had seen in Snape's Pensieve; the spiteful, selfish Sirius that taunted those he didn't like. And those times were usually around James, which Harry found rather annoying.

James was consistently talking about Lily, who Harry longed to meet. He had glimpsed her a few times in the corridors, but never had the chance, or reason, to speak with her. Mostly because he was with Sirius, or James, or both of them. Thinking back to Sirius again, Harry realized that beforehand, he had known very little about his godfather. He looked so different, so much more whole and happy.

"Harry?"

Harry jumped, and realized he had been staring. He smiled apologetically, but didn't yet avert his gaze.

Sirius smiled amusedly. "Am I so positively good looking that you have to stare your eyes out, even AFTER you apologize?"

Harry gave him one of his quirky smiles. "Yes," he mused, "and I just realized how deeply in love with you I am and that I think we should go to the next Hogsmeade weekend together."

Sirius laughed. "Sure thing," he said. "Shall we head back to the common room?"

"Might as well," Harry replied, feeling a lot better after that gloomy conversation.

The next day, Harry woke up early. Figuring that everyone was still asleep, he decided to go down to the library. He stopped dead when he saw who was in there.

Long red hair; dazzling, kind, green eyes, his mother sat comfortably at a desk by the window, and from what it looked like, was studying. Harry wished he had the courage to go up to her, but not being able to think of any reason to, he went to look for a certain book.

Harry had abruptly decided half way through the night that he was going to help Sirius. He hadn't been sure how, at first, or why, but then he settled on making something to treat the damage on his godfather's back. Pulling ten or so potions books from the shelves, he looked up _'Potions and Their Medical Uses by Linda Poison' _and inhabited a seat at the opposite side of the room to Lily. He was halfway through reading a potion on scar treatment, when he felt a shadow appear across the book. Lily gave him a curious look.

"Can I sit here?" she asked politely. Harry nodded, speechless. Luckily, he didn't have to worry about what to say as she asked first.

"Are you the one who has been hanging around Potter?" she asked, seeming reluctant.

Harry gave her a pitied look; he knew exactly how she felt about his father. "Yes, and I know I look a lot like him, if that's what you were going to say."

She smiled. "You do." Then her face became serious again. "You should be careful around Potter, though. He can become very dim witted when it comes to people's feelings."

Harry smiled amusedly. "I know," he said. He received a questioning look, and shrugged. "I've seen."

"Doesn't it bother you that you are friends with a selfish prat who cares about nothing but himself," she began to ramble on a bit about how self-centered James could be.

Harry felt nonplussed. "Come on, he can't be that bad." But he knew that she was right. Then something occurred to him. Did Lily have feelings for James yet? It didn't seem so, not with that much hatred in her words, but… The next thing she said clued it all up for Harry.

"Why can't he just be like he is when he hasn't got a large crowd around him? He can be so nice and, and..."

Harry looked at her carefully. He sighed, and said simply, "Why don't you just tell him how you feel?"

She looked at him, shocked. "You, you…" she spluttered.

He smiled. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone." He checked his watch; it was time the Marauders would be getting up. "I've got to go back to the dorm before breakfast, I'll see you later." He wandered out of the library, leaving Lily still sitting there, looking stunned.

Half an hour later he sat at the Gryffindor table, waiting for the others to arrive. Sirius came into the hall, looking slightly annoyed. Sitting himself down next to Harry, he said, "How do you get up so bloody early?" Harry laughed, when suddenly the empty seat next to him was replaced with one Lily Evans.

"Hi, Lily," he said. She looked somewhat out of breath.

"Hello," she said. "Sorry, I didn't get your name in the library."

"It's Harry."

"Harry…"

"James."

"Okay." She smiled and then added, looking slightly desperate, "You won't tell anyone, will you?"

"'Course not."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

She sighed in relief. "Thank you."

Harry shrugged.

"What's your little secret, Evans?" Sirius asked over Harry.

"Never you mind, Black." She glared at him darkly.

"C'mon Evans, it can't be that bad."

"Sirius," Harry said quietly, looking down at his food.

Sirius looked at him strangely, but let the topic drop.

"Harry, Sirius!" James skidded into the hall, not seeming to notice how he was attracting all the attention.

"Yeah?"

"Quidditch practice at seven!"

Sirius burst out laughing. Harry grinned. "You rushed all the way down here to tell us that?"

"We're touched, James," Sirius managed through his laughter.

"Is Quidditch all you can think about, Potter?" Lily muttered to herself.

James shot her an annoyed look. "Just because you can't stay on a broom, Evans, doesn't mean no one else can."

Lily sighed and ignored him.

Harry shook his head dismally before taking out his timetable.

"What've we got today?" Sirius asked through mouthfuls of breakfast.

"Try swallowing and I'll tell you," Harry said, amused. "We've got Potions... DADA… Arithmancy, Transfiguration… and that's it.

"Great…' he muttered.

"What's so bad about that?"

"Oh, nothing."

Harry didn't want to pursue the subject so he went back upstairs to get his stuff. Harry realized that he wouldn't be sitting next to Sirius in any of those subjects, except for Transfiguration, but they weren't usually allowed to talk in McGonagall's class. Shrugging, and wondering why he cared so much, he set off for Potions.

The day went by rather slowly, and Harry realized he was thinking more and more about Sirius. There was something about his godfather that hadn't been there in the present time. Not being able to figure out what it was, Harry decided to burn time and look up the potion he needed for Sirius' scars. It took an hour to find the right one, and by that time, it was almost seven o' clock, which meant Quidditch practice. Rushing down to the Great Hall, he was stopped on the way by someone very unwelcome.

"Well, well, well," the slowly drawled words of a seventh-year Slytherin reached Harry. "If it isn't the new Mudblood. How very… pleased, I am, to meet you at last."

Harry gave him a disgusted look, before making to move around him.

"Ah," the boy said, "but why the hurry?"

Harry, fairly annoyed by now, gritted his teeth and uttered, "get out of the way."

"Well, how rude," the Slytherin began, whilst gracefully taking out his wand. "I think a stunning may teach you to respect your betters, James."

But before he could even utter the spell, Harry had his wand out. "_Expelliarmus!" _he yelled, causing the other boy to look first gob smacked, then angry.

"Give me my wand back, you stupid little –"

"_Stupefy!_"

Said Slytherin fell to the floor with a thump.

"Harry!" Sirius yelled, running round the corner looking breathless.

"What –" His blue gaze fell upon the lifeless body lying crookedly on the floor, then it found Harry's wand. "Are you ok?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Harry said, cautiously stepping over the body.

Worries away, Sirius grinned. "You stunned a Slytherin."

Harry laughed at him; trust Sirius to find Slytherins being stunned amusing. "Yeah, I did. He kept calling me a Mudblood," he said, thinking nothing of it.

Sirius scowled. "Bastard," he muttered.

Harry shrugged. "C'mon, let's go, Quidditch practice."

"Oh yeah, that. It's been cancelled because of the storm."

Harry yawned. "Ah, good, I'm tired enough as it is." The last three or four days he had been using obscuring charms. _Good thing, too_, he thought. He had shocked himself when he looked in the mirror the day before without using the charm.

"You're not sleeping well?" Sirius asked with a frown.

"Yeah… no," Harry sighed. The nightmares had started coming back, mostly the ones about Cedric, or Sirius falling though the veil. Harry shuddered at the mere thought of it.

Sirius looked at him questioningly.

"I get nightmares," Harry said slowly.

Sirius looked more and more worried. "About your parents?"

"No… about –" He stopped. He couldn't tell Sirius without giving the whole thing away. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does, it does matter. C'mon, tell me, Harry, maybe I can help."

"No… you can't help me, Sirius."

"Why not?" Sirius asked, annoyed.

"You just can't." Harry began to move back to the common room, wishing he had never mentioned how tired he was.

"Harry, Harry wait."

Harry stopped to look at him.

"Please tell me, I need to know what's wrong."

"Why do you need to know, Sirius?"

"I just… I just do, okay? Please?"

Harry gazed at Sirius for a while, taking in what was real, and said finally, "I'll tell you another time."

"No, Harry."

"Yes," he said, and Sirius could tell that that was his final word.

"Alright," Sirius said with a sigh. "But promise you'll tell me, okay?"

"I promise," Harry said.

The rest of the week went by slowly. Luckily, Pettigrew was usually absent, so Harry didn't have to put up with him very often. The Marauders had realized that he disliked Peter, even though they didn't know why, and made sure to keep Peter away from him. Harry was grateful for this, as he couldn't stand the pathetic rat.

Remus was quiet and usually very busy, as was James (busy following Lily around the castle or at Quidditch practice) and Sirius had begun to constantly follow Harry around everywhere. Harry wasn't sure why though, whether it was for the company or to get the promised information out of him, but he didn't mind it at all. In fact, he rather enjoyed having Sirius by his side all the time, even if it did cause groups of giggling girls to follow them around the castle.

Harry had to admit, Sirius _was_ very attractive, and Harry couldn't help but stare at him from time to time.

The week ended abruptly, and Harry found himself despising the idea of getting up early on Saturday morning. Sirius agreed (although, that's how Sirius felt every morning).

"Come on, you two! Get up!" James yelled, whilst lobbing pillows at them from the other side of the dorm.

Harry groaned and slid under the covers.

"James," Sirius said irritably. "I'm trying to bloody well sleep here."

"Come _on,_ look outside, great weather for playing Quidditch!"

Sirius huffed and threw the covers over himself. Even Harry didn't feel like playing right now.

"Harry, come on! If you don't get out of bed now, you hate Quidditch!"

Harry muttered something before wrapping the covers around himself and slumping onto the floor.

Sirius sniggered at him through a miniscule gap in his own covers.

"Argh," was James' last syllable before running from the room.

The dorm was empty now except for Harry and Sirius, who were fast on their way back to sleep.

A second later James reappeared, looking frustrated.

"Right, if you don't get out of bed," he said to the sleeping boys, "on the count of three, I'll tie you up in the same bed and you'll be forced to admit your feelings for each other." James smirked. "Right, one, two…. Three!"

After no movement, he sighed.

"Fine, if that's the way you want it." Smirking again, he levitated a sleeping Harry onto Sirius' bed, which had now become a mountain of pillows and blankets. He then forced Harry's latent body inside the mountain and permanently shut the curtains.

Satisfied, he left to go and play Quidditch.

A couple of hours later, Harry woke to find himself in a nice, comfortably warm position. Content, he drifted off again.

Sirius yawned, having finally woken at last from one of those wonderful dreams… to find a warm, sleeping Harry in his arms. He smiled, before wondering why it was so dark.

After five minutes of attempting to emerge from his mountain, he succeeded to find that the curtains wouldn't budge. His thoughts immediately found their way to James.

Sighing, he crawled back inside the mountain, accidentally sitting on his sleeping friend.

"Gah!" was the nonsensical answer. Sirius grinned. "Sorry," he murmured, but Harry had already fallen back to sleep.

Sirius found himself enjoying the fact that Harry was sleeping comfortably in Sirius' bed and going back to his former position, wrapped an arm around the slightly smaller boy and fell asleep.

"Sirius?"

A quiet voice and a slight shake of the shoulder woke Sirius up. He found himself gazing into amused emerald eyes, and after at least a minute of just staring pointlessly, an eyebrow was raised at him. He leaned up on his elbow and it was then that he realized the position they were in. He was wrapped snugly around Harry who had absolutely no way of escape, plus they were both covered by the huge (had it been growing?) mountain of pillows and blankets. Feeling very comfortable, Sirius settled down and closed his eyes once again. This earned him a poke in the ribs.

He opened an eye reluctantly, which got a laugh out of Harry.

"Come on, get up, we can't lie here all day."

"We have to," Sirius muttered.

"Oh?"

"James put a Permanent Sticking Charm on the curtains…"

Harry looked at him confusedly.

"Whatever for?"

"Dunno, he said sumthin' 'bout feelings, then went off..." Sirius began to drift off again.

"What do you think he meant, Sirius? Sirius!"

"_What_? I'm _TRYING _to sleep here, damn it."

"You've been sleeping all day."

"So? Sleeping is natural; it's something we all need to do at some point in our lives."

"Right… well, you carry on sleeping, but I'm getting out of here."

"And how are you planning on doing that?" Sirius demanded, being more or less awake now.

"I don't know, I guess I'll –" Harry attempted to disentangle himself with Sirius' limbs "–have to find some sort of way…" Sirius looked at him smugly, refusing to let Harry out of his grasp.

"Sirius!"

"Look, we're not getting out of here until James comes back, so we might as well enjoy it while we can."

"Enjoy it? How?"

"Why, by sleeping, of course!"

Harry sighed.

"Alright fine, no more sleeping, but this is a great opportunity for you to tell me about these nightmares of yours."

Harry tensed up at that. He closed his eyes. "I can't tell you that, and even if I did, you wouldn't believe half of it."

"So tell me, if I'm not going to believe it, what's the problem?"

Harry gave him a look.

"You _DID _promise, Harry."

Harry sighed, and lay down again. "I know," he said.

Harry looked at Sirius, really, for the first time, _looked _at him. He saw his beloved godfather; his now, probably, closest friend ever. It would kill Harry to lose Sirius, how could he keep something as big as this from him?

"Please?"

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you." And so he told him.

Sirius was a good listener; he didn't interrupt once, which Harry was grateful for. Harry told him things right from the beginning, from his receiving his Hogwarts letter at eleven years old, finding out he was a wizard and a famous one, why he was famous, what happened each of the years he was a victim of Voldemort's attempts of murder, right up until his last school year and the Triwizard Tournament. He finally got to the part when he travelled back in time, to which Sirius was completely shocked. He explained how Dumbledore was trying to get him back. He left out all the parts that might change the future; mostly the bits including Peter Pettigrew, and when he was finally finished, he felt exhausted.

"You're right," he said, "sleeping does sound like a good idea." Before closing his eyes once more.

"Wait, wait, wait, so you're from the future?"

"Yes."

"And you're parents are dead in your time? So that must mean they are alive now."

"Yes…"

"Who are they?"

Harry sighed. "Isn't it obvious?"

Sirius looked at him, before whispering, "James…"

"That's right."

"_James_? James is your dad?"

"Keep it down! And yes, he is."

"So that must mean…"

"Look at my eyes, Sirius."

"Lily."

Harry nodded.

Sirius grinned. "So they finally go out…." His grin didn't last. "They're dead in your time."

"Yes."

Sirius closed his eyes in sorrow.

"How?" he asked.

"I already told you, Voldemort killed them. All because of –"

"All because of who, Harry? All because of who?" Sirius sat up urgently.

"I can't say; it will change the future."

"It will change the future for good! You could save them, Harry!"

"No, Sirius," Harry said sadly. "Not for good."

"What do you mean, not for good? You can save their lives!"

"Sirius –"

"Why not, Harry? _Why not_?" Sirius cried.

"_SIRIUS._"

Sirius calmed himself down. He was sitting up now, hair wild, looking helpless.

"If I saved their lives, Sirius, many other people would die."

"Why?"

"Remember what I told you. Voldemort's spell backfired on me, and that was how he was destroyed. If I told you who had betrayed Lily and James, you would prevent them from doing anything. None of this would have happened. Voldemort wouldn't have gone to Godric's Hollow to kill me, my parents would still be alive and Voldemort would still be at large killing off all the Muggles. Would you choose them over that?"

Sirius sighed. "No… I wouldn't," he said reluctantly.

Harry sighed. "My nightmares just show me the things that have happened, just to a darker point."

"I'm sorry, Harry."

Harry shook his head.

"Harry? Who was your godfather? He's still alive now, right?"

Harry looked away. He had been hoping Sirius wouldn't ask this.

"Harry?"

Harry looked at him sadly.

"You," he murmured forlornly.

Sirius stared at him wide-eyed, and began shaking his head. 'No, no, that's not right, that can't be right,' he began to ramble.

"Why can't that be right, Sirius?"

"Because… because that just makes things even more difficult."

"What do you mean?" Harry frowned at him.

Sirius looked at him. He reached a hand out to gently touch Harry's cheek.

"Sirius…"

And suddenly he was being kissed by Sirius. By his godfather. By the only man he had looked up to as a parent, by the man who was twenty years older than him, and dead in Harry's time.

Tears fell from his face as Harry kissed Sirius back, almost hungrily. Next, he was being pushed back down and Sirius was lying on top of him –

"Are they still in there?"

"Damn, I forgot about those two, I put a Permanent Sticking Charm on Sirius' bed."

"You WHAT?"

"It seemed a good idea at the time…"

Sirius quickly rolled of Harry and they both sat up, just as the curtains were being pulled back.

The grin was wiped off of James' face as Sirius leapt at him. They ended up as a tangled heap on the floor.

Remus shook his head and looked at Harry.

"He deserved it," Remus mused, before moving towards his own bed.

As Harry lay in his bed that night, he thought about what had happened. His mind battled over his feelings for Sirius. It was wrong, very wrong, for the obvious reasons; being that Sirius was Harry's godfather, he was twenty years older than Harry, and for God's sake – he was Harry's Dad's best friend! Yet Harry felt that he was gradually falling for the dark-haired Animagus.

With a frustrated sigh, he turned over for the fifth time; sleep didn't seem to be coming his way.

"Harry?" He heard the soft whisper. Making a gap in the curtains, Harry found himself looking at Sirius from his own bed, which was directly across the room from Harry's.

"Hey." He smiled slightly.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, can't sleep though."

Sirius gave him a slight grin. "You could come over here," he hinted.

For almost a minute, Harry considered this, before slipping out of his bed and straight into Sirius'.

Sirius pulled the curtains shut around them and they both settled down comfortably.

"Night, Sirius," Harry uttered tiredly.

"Night… Harry…"


	2. Chapter 2

Finally Official?

"Finally! Took them a damn long while!"

Harry woke up to a triumphant yelling. He heard a sleepy grunt behind him, before turning to find a drowsy-looking Sirius gazing at him though heavy lidded eyes.

"James!" Remus laughed. "Give it a rest!"

Harry turned again, confused. "Wha –"

"Morning, Harry!" James appeared enthusiastically in front of Harry, a wicked grin on his face. "I see you two are now finally official."

"Huh?"

"Oh, come on, don't try to hide it, Harry. We know you two have been lusting after each other for ages."

"Go away… prat…" Sirius mumbled groggily.

"Sure, wouldn't want to ruin your romantic moments, now would I?"

Harry decided to ignore him and, yawning, began to slide out of bed. That was before an arm wound itself around his waist and dragged him back in again. This caused James to go into hysterics. Remus just looked at Harry amusedly from over the laughing boy's shoulder.

"You ought to wake him up, you know," he said, "since you're the only one he listens to."

Harry nodded and sighed. Getting Sirius up in the morning was hell.

An hour and a half later, Harry sat at breakfast with a very grumpy Sirius at his side.

"What does it take a guy to get some sleep around here?" Sirius complained.

"It depends on what kind of guy you're suggesting, Sirius," Remus said matter-of-factly.

"Well, how many goddamn kinds of guys are there?"

It was James who answered this one. "Three," he said simply.

"Oh? And how'd you figure that out?"

"Well, first there's you, Sirius –"

"Why me?" Sirius demanded.

"Because you are almost on the brink of insanity, you care more than anything about your damn hair –"

"I do not!"

"Oh please, you use three different shampoos on it every two days – you have a schedule for God's sake! – and then you put countless amounts of sprays, waxes, and creams all over it."

"It's called style, James! Something you obviously haven't encountered yet!"

"Yeah, a four-hour-long-to-do style that lasts a day, and anyway, that's you. The next person is Harry because he's mad enough to date you –"

"We're not dating!" Harry exclaimed.

"Sure, whatever you say, and then there're _normal_ people, like me and Remus here."

"Flattered, James," Remus announced.

Sirius huffed. "What is this? Pick on Sirius day? First you drag me out of bed at the earliest hour of the day, then you make me sit here and listen to you insult me, and _then _I hear that Harry doesn't even want to date me!"

"Who would, Black?" Snape appeared behind Harry, who was laughing uncontrollably at Sirius' antics.

James immediately had his wand out, and Harry stopped laughing.

"Piss off, _Snivellus_," James snarled.

"What do you want, Snape?" Harry asked calmly.

"I am to inform Harry James that McGonagall would like to see him after his first class," Snape mused. "I take it that that is you?" he said, obviously referring to Harry.

"It is," Harry replied, wondering what McGonagall could possibly need to see him for.

"Now that you're done with your informing, Snape, why don't you take a nice little trip to the shower?" James taunted. Sirius snickered, while Remus looked down, evidently not wanting to be a part of it. Peter found this annoyingly (to Harry) hysterical.

Snape scowled. "Are you always this pathetic, Potter, or are you just practicing?" he retorted and sauntered away without awaiting an answer.

"You'll pay for that, you slimy git," James snapped, before standing up and raising his wand –

"Don't!" Harry exclaimed. "There's no point, you'll just get into trouble!"

"He's got a point, Prongs."

James sneered, but reluctantly sat down again. "Fine," he said, "but that's the last time I let him get away with his disgusting sliminess."

Sirius chuckled. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "Wash his hair for him?"

"Yuck," Harry said in disgust.

"Snape with clean hair?" Remus mused. "I can't imagine it."

They laughed, and made their way to the first lesson.

"Hey, Harry," Sirius said suddenly through Care of Magical Creatures. "Hogsmeade weekend coming up." He grinned.

"Sorry, Sirius," Harry replied cheerfully. "I'm going with James instead."

"What?" Sirius spluttered, looking aghast.

Harry inwardly snickered, whilst attempting to keep a straight as possible face. "Yep, I've decided to choose James over you. Sorry, Sirius."

Sirius eyed him suspiciously, before making his way over to James, who was attempting to calm an irritated Blast-Ended Screwt. Harry grinned and watched as Sirius whispered something to James, who looked directly at Harry in surprise, before grinning himself. Harry burst out laughing as Sirius crossed his arms angrily.

Sirius glared at him playfully. "March 28th, Pick on Sirius Day," he muttered.

"Oh, come on, you know I'm going with you."

Sirius looked at him doubtfully. "Promise?" he asked hopefully.

Harry laughed at him. "I promise," he said softly.

Sirius grinned at him again.

Harry just shook his head amusedly, and began to make his way back to the castle as the lesson ended.

"What have we got now?" he inquired Remus once they were inside.

"DADA," Remus responded as he rummaged though his bag for something. "Then double Potions with the Slytherins after lunch."

"Fun," Harry confessed with a sigh.

"Yep. Hey wait, where are Sirius and James?"

Harry shrugged. "I thought they were following."

"Oh, no," Remus muttered. "Where is it?"

"What?" Harry asked.

"Damn, I think I left my DADA book in the library. I'll see you at class later!" And with that he hurried away.

Harry sighed, and then realized he was standing alone on the first floor. The lesson was about to start in five minutes, and he had four floors to climb. He began to hurry round the corner when he met a crash.

"Watch where you are going, Potter!"

Cursing, Harry massaged the bump on his head. "I'm not Potter," he muttered irritably.

"Well – are you not meant to be with McGonagall, James? I happen to remember informing you of that at breakfast."

"Oh, crap!" Harry said as he remembered. "Do you know where she is?" he questioned Snape hurriedly.

"I believe she is her office, now if you don't mind, I'd rather not waste my time fooling around with pathetic Gryffindors."

"Yeah," Harry agreed absently, before running as fast as he could to McGonagall's office.

Bursting into the room, Harry gasped out, "Sorry, I'm late, Professor."

The professor raised an eyebrow questionably. "Late for what, Mr. James?" McGonagall asked him, looking slightly annoyed.

"Erm, didn't you want to see me?"

"I'm afraid not, Mr. James. Is there a problem?"

"Er – no, it's just… Snape told me you wanted to see me."

"Snape? I assure you, if I had wanted to see you, I would have come and got you myself. Now, I think it is time you made your way to your lesson, Mr. James."

"Yes, Professor," Harry uttered confusedly. Wandering along the corridor, he wondered why Snape would do a prank as lame as that, even when he hardly new Harry in this time. _Probably because I hang around with_ _the marauders_, Harry thought.

"Ah, so our little plan worked after all," cackled the high-pitched tone of a seventeen-year-old Bellatrix Lestrange.

Harry stopped dead. In front of him stood not only Bellatrix, but the boy Harry had encountered before who he found to be Dolohov, Avery and finally Narcissa, who hung giggling on an another boy's arm.

"It's time you pay for that little incident a few days ago, James," Dolohov smirked.

Harry's eyes narrowed. He didn't have time to muddle around with idiot Death Eaters. "What are you going to do?" he answered. "Hex me? Throw a Cruciatus my way? If that's so, would you mind getting on with it please? I don't have time to mess around with Death Eaters-to-be."

Immediately Narcissa's giggling came to a halt, as she stared at him wide eyed.

Avery took a step forward, eyes narrowed, watching him intently. 'What do _you_ know about Cruciatus, James," he spat. It wasn't a question.

"Well," Harry mused, knowing he would win this one. "I've been under it, if that's what you mean, Avery."

"Liar," the angry teenager snapped. "You don't know a thing about torture, James, so I suggest you keep out of it."

"Why ask me then, if you won't believe the truth?" Harry snapped back. "Just because you joined sides with Voldemort, Avery – Look! You can't even hear the name without cowering away! It doesn't mean you can go around threatening students with forbidden curses. You're all idiots, you know that? He manipulates you onto his side, you think it's cool, that's unless you were tortured into serving him, and then you scare the hell out of other people because _you're_ afraid that if you don't, Voldemort will do you in." He took a deep breath, realizing that he was rambling. "Why am I even talking about this anyway? It's not as if I care if you get done in for not being faithful pets."

By this time they were all looking at him wide-eyed, even Dolohov, who looked utterly shocked.

But he quickly consumed his cool, even mask. 'How do you know all this, James?'

"He killed my parents in front of me, Dolohov. I just figured it would be worth while knowing what he's about." And with that, Harry turned around and headed for his lesson.

Sighing, Harry decided there was no point in going to DADA since the lesson was almost finished, so he made his way up to the common room. Suddenly he stopped, the thought came to him, _Snape_. Scowling, Harry realized that Snape must have set him up. And just when Harry had been kind enough to think of giving the greasy git a chance.

He had just leant against a cold, stone wall a corridor away from the portrait of the Fat Lady, when said greasy git walked up to him. Immediately Harry whipped out his wand. "You set me up, _Snivellus_," he said with a snarl.

The dark Slytherin scowled. "I had no choice, James," he retorted. "They would have hexed me had I not done it for them."

"So why'd you do it? Why didn't you just get hexed? What have I ever done to you?"

"Exactly, James, what _have_ you ever done to me? Nothing, so I didn't see any point in being hexed for a pointless Gryffindor."

Harry scowled at him. "You're a selfish bastard," he argued. "No wonder no one likes you. What do you want, anyway?'

Snape narrowed his eyes. "You don't know half of it, James," he uttered snidely. "I am here because when you rudely ran into me, something of mine went missing and I can only assume you have it."

"I don't have anything of yours, Snape, and even if I did, you wouldn't be getting it back for what you just did."

"Harry!' someone shouted, before Sirius sped round the corner breathlessly. The minute he saw Snape, his eyes narrowed and wand was out. "What are you doing here, Snivelly? The Slytherin Common room is in the dungeons, from what I can remember."

"Before you rudely interrupted, Black, I was about to retrieve what is mine from your _pet_ here."

Harry scowled. "Shut up, Snape. I told you I don't have anything of yours."

"Piss off, you greasy git," Sirius said darkly.

"No, not until I get it back."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about, Snape!" Harry exclaimed. "Go to McGonagall if you're so worried about it."

"_No_, give it back, James! You know exactly what I am talking about!"

Suddenly it clicked. Harry groaned as he remembered. Just as he had ran from Snape to get to McGonagall, he picked up a strange, decayed-looking book from the floor and hurried off again. Harry slid a hand into his robe pocket, and felt the old pages. Wondering why it was so important, Harry decided to keep it for a while. It would serve Snape right for setting him up like that.

"Right, Snape," Sirius said angrily. "If you don't beat it on the count of three, I'll hex you into next week."

"I'm scared, Black," Snape sneered.

"One…" Sirius began threateningly.

"James…" Snape ground out.

"Two…"

"Go away, Snape," Harry said shortly.

"Three! Right, Snape, you asked for it…"

"Sirius, no – wait!" Harry said, annoyed now. Snape didn't deserve to be hexed for wanting something of his own back.

Sirius scowled, annoyed. "Why are you always sticking up for him, Harry? He's just a greasy git."

Sirius was right; Harry had always been sticking up for Snape. More than a few times he had prevented James or Sirius cursing the Slytherin.

Sighing, Harry said, "I just don't think hexing him is a good idea."

"Then what is? How are we meant to get rid of him then?"

"Stop it, Sirius."

"Stop _what_?"

Harry gave him annoyed look, before turning to Snape. "Leave," he said quietly.

"_no_," the Slytherin shot back.

"Leave," Harry said darkly. "_now."_

"Fine, but tomorrow I'm going straight to McGonagall – we'll see how she takes this."

"Boohoo, Snape," Sirius drawled. "Go on then, go crying to McGonagall. See if we care."

"Don't worry, Black. I'm sure you'll end up caring when you are in a month long detention."

"Just go, Snape," Harry said tiredly.

"Stop ordering me about, you soiled little Mudblood –"

"_Petrificus Totalus!_" Sirius yelled, causing Snape to keel over backwards.

"Sirius!" Harry cried, and rushed over to Snape.

"He called you a –a –"

"He called me a Mudblood, so what? It's not as if I haven't been called one before, Sirius."

"What's going on?" James demanded as he appeared from around the corner.

"Harry's upset because I hexed Snivellus for calling him a Mudblood," Sirius fumed.

"What?" James exclaimed. "How can you –"

"Look," Harry said, angry now, "maybe if you didn't treat him like crap all the time he wouldn't be like that! Why can't you just leave him alone for once?"

"Us?" Sirius exclaimed, as Remus walked through the portrait hole to almost trip over Snape's body. 'It's HIM who follows US around! In fact," he said suddenly, "it's you he's following!"

"What?"

"Yuck," James said. "Greasy, slimy Snivellus has a crush on Harry? That's sick."

"Shut up," Harry said.

"But you know it's true though, don't you?" Sirius taunted. "He's always staring at you when he thinks we're not looking. It's disgusting."

"Shut up! What's your problem, Sirius? I thought you had finished going through the 'complete selfish bastard' phase!"

All three of the Marauders gaped at him.

"And you," Harry said angrily, turning to James. 'You're a selfish, arrogant git, no wonder Lily won't go out with you!"

James looked at him wide eyed, before pulling out his wand. "You'll pay for that, Harry!"

"What are you going to do, James?" Harry mocked. "Hex me into next week? Go on then!" He put his wand back in his pocket and stood with his arms out.

James scowled, along with Sirius, but did nothing.

"What's going on down here?" Demanded the shrill voice of McGonagall, who strode down the corridor towards them. She took in the two pointed wands at Harry, the unmoving body of Snape, and Remus Lupin who stood waiting for something to happen.

"Right, you three –- four, in my office, _now._"

After she took the hex off a sneering Snape, they followed her down to her office. As they entered, she conjured up several chairs in front of her desk and uttered a sharp, "Sit."

Immediately, Sirius and James began to ramble at the same time until she put her hand up to silence them.

Harry just sat with his arms folded and Snape refused to look at any of them.

"Mr. James," McGonagall said, causing the other three to scowl. "Would you care to elaborate on this?"

So Harry told her what had happened, fairly. In the end, Sirius, James nor Snape could complain.

"Do we all agree on this?" McGonagall asked pointedly. The four of them nodded.

She looked at them intensely for a minute, before saying, "That will be ten points each from Gryffindor and from Slytherin, and a week worth of detentions."

"A week!" Sirius exclaimed. "But we hardly did anything!"

McGonagall looked at him sternly, and said, "You know what you did, Mr. Black, and now you have to pay the consequences. In my office, seven o' clock, tomorrow, please. You are dismissed."

Sirius and James rushed out of the office and along the corridor, muttering together, while Harry sighed and left to go to the library.

As Harry made his way down there, he realized he was being followed, before turning around to find Snape behind him. Sighing again, he said, "What do you want, Snape?"

"I want back my diary, James," was the simple answer. No sneering, no scowling.

Harry looked at him carefully, before thinking, _diary?_ Eyes widening in realization, he pulled out the small, forgotten book in his pocket. "Is this what you mean?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes," Snape hissed, and snatched it back.

Harry shrugged. "You could've just said, y'know."

"What do you think they would do when they find out I have a diary, James?" Snape sneered this time.

"What if I happen to tell them?" Harry asked, annoyed again.

"I know you won't, not yet, as they do not want to talk to you right now and, by the time they do, I'll have it safe and hidden where prying Gryffindors cannot find it."

"Whatever," Harry said. He couldn't be bothered to argue with Snape any more, it just seemed so… _old._

He began to turn, before –

"James."

"Yes?" Harry voiced tiredly.

"Why did you do that?" Snape looked at him intently, whilst taking a step forward.

"Do what?" Harry asked, bemused.

"Why do you always stop Potter and Black from hexing me?" Snape asked suspiciously.

"Is that a bad thing?" Harry said. "Would you rather I stop?"

'No…' Snape hesitated.

"Well, then. I'll see you in detention."

"Where are you going?"

"To the library."

"What for?" Snape began to follow him again as he made his way there.

"Does it matter?"

Snape didn't answer. "You haven't answered my question," he said as they arrived there.

"Maybe I don't want to,' Harry said absently, before slumping in one of the chairs tiredly. Snape sat opposite to him.

"I want to know."

Harry sat up and stared at him. "Maybe I just don't like seeing people taunted at for doing _nothing_. Why do they do it to you the most anyway?"

Snape looked at him strangely before answering. "Because they do not like me," he said simply.

"There's got to be a reason," Harry said.

"Why has there got to be? They do not like me, therefore they hex me."

Harry sighed. "That's sad," he said.

"It is," Snape replied.

Harry folded his arms on the table and rested his chin on them, looking up at Snape. "Well," he said. "Now that you're done with your questioning…" he trailed off.

Snape watched him for a minute, before saying a quietly thanking him and slipping away.

Harry sat there in shock. Snape had thanked him? _Snape_ had _thanked_ him! He laughed bemusedly to himself. What was the world coming to?

That night, Harry slept the minute his head touched the pillows. What he didn't know, was that he was being watched.

"Harry?" Sirius murmured, as he quietly sat on the edge to Harry's bed. Sirius gazed longingly at the sleeping green eyed boy. He cursed inwardly for his stupid, _stupid_ behavior earlier that day. Why did he always have to mess things up? Sighing, he reached out towards Harry – before snatching his hand back as the boy rolled over while sleepily murmuring to himself. Sirius smiled fondly. Carefully, he leant down, ghosting his fingers over those lips… green eyes. Beautiful green eyes, and he was staring into them. "Harry?" he murmured.

"Sirius?" was the sleepy answer. "What –"

"Harry, I – I'm sorry, I really am, about today –"

"Ssh," Harry said quietly, before closing his eyes again. "It's all right, Sirius. It doesn't matter."

"No, Harry, it _does_ matter, I was being a complete prat – In fact, I'm _still_ a complete prat-"

"No, Sirius."

"Yes –"

"Sirius, listen to me," Harry said, sitting up. "You are _not_ a complete prat, you're the most wonderful person I've ever met. You can just be a bit… thoughtless, sometimes."

"Sometimes?" Sirius said incredulously.

"Yes, sometimes," Harry replied sternly. "Now, go to sleep before I hex you into next week."

Sirius smiled at him, relieved. "You don't mind if I stay…" he began, before being pulled down into the bed next to Harry. Smiling, he said a quick "thanks" and fell straight asleep.

Harry smiled fondly and wound his arms around his godfather's neck.

Forgiving Sirius was so easy.

The next morning, Harry woke up feeling a lot better. Sirius lay beside him with an arm wrapped around Harry's waist.

"Harry…" he murmured in his sleep, forcing Harry to grin.

"Come on, Sirius… wake up…" Harry said, without the intention of getting up for at least another half hour.

"Hmm," Sirius grunted before pulling Harry even closer to him.

Harry heard Remus yawn from the other side of the room, and wondered if Remus would talk to him after what had happened the day before.

"Wha' day is it?" Remus asked drowsily no one in particular.

"Thursday," Harry muttered. _Double Potions_, he thought sourly.

"Not Friday?" Remus asked irritably.

Harry snorted. "We wish."

A moment later, Remus asked suddenly, "Harry?"

"Yeah?" Harry said, pushing himself up a bit, so that he could see Remus from over Sirius.

"What did you mean when you said you thought Sirius had finished going through the 'complete selfish bastard' phase?"

Harry winced. He hadn't meant to say it _that_ harshly, but he had been too angry to care at the time. He sighed, and said, "I didn't mean to say that, I was just really mad. I guess I exaggerated a bit." He shrugged.

"A bit?" Remus answered incredulously. "The minute we arrived back at the dorm Sirius was pacing up and down trying to figure out what you meant. When he finally got it he became really, well – depressed, I guess, and wouldn't talk to anyone."

Harry winced again. It was that bad? "I know," he said tiredly. "I'm sorry," he whispered, looking down at Sirius and brushing a stray jet-black lock of hair out of his godfather's face.

"S' ok," Sirius mumbled sleepily without opening his eyes. Harry smiled.

"Are you two together now?" he heard Remus ask curiously. "Can I ask?"

"I don't know," Harry said with a sigh. He loved Sirius, he really did. But like that? Harry scratched his head in confusion; he knew it wasn't right, but…

"Don't be silly, Harry, of course we're together," Sirius said matter-of-factly, being more awake now.

"If you say so, Sirius," Harry said bemusedly.

"I do," Sirius answered simply.

Harry shook his head in amusement, before lying back down again. Sirius still had a hold of him, and he had no intention of moving.

The day passed by slowly, and as they made their way down to double potions in the afternoon, Harry began to get worried. James was completely ignoring him, refusing to even sit with him, which meant Sirius and Remus were torn between sitting next to Harry or sitting next to James. In the end, they took it in turns to sit next to each of the Potter's in different lessons and at mealtimes. Harry found this pretty stupid and told them just to go and sit with James, Harry really didn't mind, but they refused.

As they entered the Potions classroom, Professor Stevens was putting students into pairs. If it weren't for the different looks and surnames, Harry would have thought Professor Stevens was Snape's father or some other close relative. The adult Snape in Harry's time and Professor Stevens acted almost exactly the same, and Harry found himself disliking the professor the minute he had met him. The despicable (in the whole classes' opinion) man was enjoying himself by adding up the irate Slytherins with the peeved Gryffindors. The only difference between Stevens and Snape was that Professor Stevens did not tend to favor any of the houses, as he disliked all students in general.

"Right, you – Potter, with Nott, right _now_!"

"But, sir –"

"Enough! Ten points for talking back, Potter! You, Black! You're with Zabini and you –" He looked at Harry and searched for someone to pair him with. "Ah!" he said delightedly. "You, James! Pair with Snape."

James smirked spitefully, whilst Sirius scowled and narrowed his eyes, glaring at Snape threateningly.

Harry sighed at the Marauders antics, and went to sit down next to Snape, who had a totally blank expression on his face.

As Professor Stevens began with the instructions, Harry asked Snape pointlessly, "Why do you always have to wear a mask?"

"What do you mean?" Snape asked, looking at him strangely.

"You never reveal any expression," Harry explained, "It's like you're afraid of showing an emotion, or something."

Snape gave him another odd look, before answering curtly, "I don't have any idea as to what you mean, James."

Harry sighed. "Whatever," he said. He watched as Snape began to add ingredients to the potion since the professor had finished explaining.

"How do you do that?" he asked blandly.

"Do what?"

"Make a potion without even knowing what to do."

Snape raised an eyebrow at him. "What makes you think I do not know what to do?" he said with a smirk.

Harry shook his head confusedly.

Snape sighed. "Brewing potions is not that difficult, James." He suddenly looked at Harry irritably. "I'd rather not call you James, as it reminds me of Potter over there," he said, glancing for a second in James's direction.

Harry shrugged. "Call me Harry, then," he said simply.

"Fine."

Harry gave the dark haired Slytherin another confused look. "I still don't get how you –"

"Look, Ja – Harry," Snape said, annoyed. "Would you rather I gave you private Potions lessons after school, because from what I have seen, you are hopeless at it."

Harry gave him a sidelong look. "I don't think Sirius would like that," he said quietly. "Or James," he added.

"I was joking, Harry."

"I thought Slytherins didn't joke?"

"Then you thought incorrectly."

Harry looked at him carefully, before saying, "You are very strange."

"So are you," was the simple answer.

Harry shrugged. "Fair enough," he said.

"Yes."

Harry looked at the now perfectly done potion. He then looked up to find Snape watching him. "How did you do that so fast?" Harry asked, bewildered. The rest of the class were only halfway through making theirs.

Snape smirked at him, but didn't answer. Just then, a shadow loomed over their desk, and Harry looked up to find Stevens leaning over them looking slightly irritated.

"Cheating, James?" he said shrewdly.

Harry looked at him confusedly. "Er – no," he said.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for lying, James."

Harry shrugged and turned away, not bothering to argue, for once.

"He did not cheat, Professor," Harry heard, and turned back to find Snape looking intently at his Professor.

Snape was sticking up for him?

Stevens looked suspiciously down at Snape, the only student he considered decent when it came to potions. "Fine," he said, "but next time, I won't let you off so easy. Have your points back, James." With that he wandered off to loom over some other poor victim.

Harry looked suspiciously at Snape. "Why did you do that?" he asked.

Snape gave him a blank look. "Do what?" he said.

"You know what."

Snape sighed irritably. "It is sometimes called, 'doing a favor', Harry," he said sarcastically.

Harry raised his hands in mock defeat. "All right, all right," he said, wincing slightly. "No need for the sarcasm though."

Snape looked at him strangely again, and with that, the lesson ended.

Harry sighed as he met Sirius at the door to the classroom.

"So, how was your lesson with Snivellus?" Sirius asked.

"Will you stop calling him that?" Harry said irritably. "It was fine."

It was Sirius' turn to sigh this time. "Okay, fine," he said. "Come on, detention."

Harry groaned; he had forgotten about that.

"Yeah, I know," Sirius said. "Bad day."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. They arrived at McGonagall's office, to find Snape had silently followed them. Sirius scowled, but said nothing when he received a look from Harry.

"Where's James?" Harry asked him as Sirius knocked.

"Dunno, maybe he forgot."

"Come in." They heard. McGonagall stood as they entered the classroom.

"Right," she began. "Potter, Black – where's Potter?"

"Here, Professor!" James gasped as he ran into the room.

McGonagall sent him a disapproving look, before continuing. "Potter, Black, you will be serving detention with Professor Stevens, tonight, as I cannot find time to do it myself." She put a hand up at their protests. "And you two," she said, directing her stare at Harry and Snape, "will be clearing out one of the old, unused classrooms for the first years to use. But first, I'd like a word, Harry. The rest of you may go."

As the other three left the classroom, McGonagall said, "Mr. James."

"Yes, Professor?"

"I am afraid I have some bad news. After plenty of research we have found nothing that will enforce you to return to the future." She sighed tiredly and gave him a pitied look, before continuing. "Although we are still seeking information from the Ministry –"

"The Ministry?" Harry exclaimed.

"Yes, Mr. James, the Ministry. We have had to inform specialists in the Department of Mysteries of what has happened and they are doing all they can to find you a solution to getting back. This is a very serious issue, as it is dangerous for wizards from the future to interfere with the past. But I can assure you, they are not willing to give up so soon." Another tired sigh and a pitied look.

Harry heaved a sigh, before muttering more to himself, "So, basically I'm stuck here forever."

"You obviously have not been listening," McGonagall said irritably.

"Sorry, Professor." Harry said tiredly. "I was listening."

"Very well, you may now attend your detention, Mr. James."

Harry muttered a "thanks" before trudging to the classroom he was supposed to be cleaning out. Why was it always him? It just happened to be he, Harry, who received the infamous scar. It just happened to be he, Harry, whom others were attempting to kill. It just happened to be he, Harry, who Malfoy managed to send back in time.

Harry suppressed a sigh as he finally arrived at the old classroom to find Snape sitting there waiting for him.

"Haven't you started?" Harry asked.

"Would that be fair?" Snape sneered.

Harry shrugged, confused at Snape's suddenly spiteful behavior. Deciding to ignore Snape, he glanced around at the room. The only thing he could properly see was dust. Everywhere, piles and piles of books and parchment covered in dust. Sighing, he started to cast cleaning spells around the room. Snape gave him a strange look before doing the same. The night went by slowly, and it was only when Harry began to sort through the different books on the shelves, did he notice it. Aged, covered in dust and ripped slightly at the edges, Tom Marvolo Riddle's diary sat amongst the old History of Magic books.

Wide eyed, and wondering how it got there, Harry slowly picked it up.

"What's that?" Snape asked curiously, wandering over to Harry.

"Nothing," Harry said quickly, before hastily stuffing the diary into his bag.

Snape scowled at him. "Stealing, James?" he asked menacingly.

Harry frowned at him. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?" he asked angrily. "One minute you're nice, the next you start throwing insults my way."

Snape narrowed his eyes, but said nothing. Harry sighed and was about to continue with the room when McGonagall swept in. She looked intently around the room before saying, "Your detention is over. I suggest you hurry back to your dorms before anyone wonders what you are doing still in the corridors. You will carry on with this room at seven o' clock every day for the rest of the week. I will know if you choose not to attend it. Goodnight." And with that she stalked away.

Harry was about to leave the classroom when Snape grabbed his arm with a hurried, "Wait!"

"What?" Harry snapped. He was too tired to bicker with Snape at ten o' clock when he could be sound asleep in the dorm.

Snape flinched slightly at his snap, before resuming his usual posture. "I was just wondering," he said curtly, "if you and Black are _together_." He said disgustedly, emphasizing the last word to make sure Harry knew _exactly _what he meant.

"Yes," Harry answered suspiciously. "Why?"

"I just wondered whether it was true you were stealing Potter's girlfriend or not," Snape said snidely, before sweeping out of the classroom.

"Whatever," Harry muttered as he made his way back to the Gryffindor common room.

One thing was bothering him though.

_Did Snape **really** have a crush on him?_


	3. Chapter 3

USELESS, HOPELESS AND WITLESS SOLUTIONS

"Haaaaaaaaaaary! Haaaaary, wake up! Harry? HARRY?"

"WHAT? God, I'm trying to sleep here! Jeez."

"Harry, please get up. Please?"

"_Why_?"

"I… want to show you something!"

"No, go away!"

"Why? Don't you love me anymore?"

"Leave me alone!"

"…"

"…"

"Harry?"

"ARGH! Right, that's it!"

Sirius laughed maniacally as he scrambled out of the room, whilst Harry struggled irritably through the other boy's many bed covers.

"Sirius!" he yelled.

"Sirius, get your arse back here RIGHT NOW!"

"You'll never catch me, Harry! NEVER!" Harry heard from the common room. He also heard gasps and bouts of laughter. He hurried to pull clothes on and sped out of the dormitory.

Sirius was going to pay.

An hour later, Harry stood looking both ruffled and annoyed in the doorway to McGonagall's classroom. He glared daggers at Sirius, who sat smirking at him from the front.

"Mr. James! You are twenty minutes late! If you were not already in a one week detention, you would surely be in another!"

Harry kept his glare on Sirius, ignoring the sniggers around the room, and watched with satisfaction as the smirk on the other boy's face disappeared and was replaced by a gulp.

Harry uttered an apology before settling in at the back, next to Lily. McGonagall resumed her lecture as Harry dumped his books on the table.

"Harry?" Lily whispered.

Harry turned to her with interest. Maybe she could help him plan his revenge on Sirius? Sure, being chased around the common room by the Animagus twenty times had been fun, but being locked in a cupboard with a groping fifth year girl afterwards? Now, that deserved revenge. However, before he could begin any discussions concerning Sirius – "Hi."

"Did Black get you into trouble again? Why do you put up with him?"

Harry frowned. Sirius wasn't that bad.

"What's wrong with Sirius?" he asked.

"He's just like Potter!" Lily insisted. "He never uses his brain; I'm surprised to know he even has one!"

"But he's nice when he hasn't got a large crowd around him."

Lily gave him a surprised look.

Harry sighed. "Maybe, he's just like that on the outside, but once you get to know him…"

"Well…"

"Look, Sirius is probably the best friend I've ever had, as is James. They prank people and taunt people for attention, and even then, it's mostly the smartasses they bother. It may be stupid of them, but they are still nice people. Maybe you should just get to know them properly."

Lily stared at him, wonder in her eyes. Then she smiled. "I don't think I have ever met such a caring person."

Despite his serious ramble, Harry blushed. "Um…" he managed.

Lily laughed as McGonagall finished speaking and the lesson began.

After it had ended, Harry waited for his favourite Animagus outside the room.

"Harry!" Sirius exclaimed. "How nice it is to see you!" he yelled before attempting to rush down the corridor.

"Where do you think you're going, Black!" Harry yelled triumphantly after him. "Prepare to die!"

James and Remus laughed as Harry sped after the hysterical teenager. "Sirius, come back!"

After two floors and five corridors, Harry shouted breathlessly, "Okay, okay! I give up."

"Ha!" Sirius' disembodied voice floated from around the corner. "Pathetic!"

"Oh, shut up and get over here. Lesson starts in five."

Sirius sauntered around the corner with a smirk on his face, before yelling aloud as Harry leaped at him.

It was at lunch that Harry realised he still had Tom Riddle's diary in his pocket, but he decided not to take it out, as he noticed out of the corner of his eye a ruffled Sirius stagger towards him.

"_Now_, who's pathetic?" Harry asked with a smirk of his own. He figured he must have got the habit from Draco Malfoy, because he certainly never used to smirk, and now it seemed to be becoming a habit.

"Shut up and kiss me," Sirius grumbled. Harry laughed, but generously complied.

The rest of the day went rather well. None of their lessons were with Slytherins, so Harry did not have to worry about any awkward conversations with Snape. That was before he remembered his detention that night with the Slytherin.

He noticed that the older Slytherins – Lestrange and co – had not bothered him since that day outside McGonagall's office. In fact, they seemed to be avoiding him. _Good_, he thought. No more stupid Slytherins to deal with. Except Snape.

Also, Pettigrew had been missing for a couple of days; apparently off to see his sick grandfather this time. James didn't expect him to be back for a while, Harry had heard. And just how many sick grandparents did the rat have?

Finally, when everyone was away studying or busy snogging in the Astronomy Tower, and after his awkwardly silent detention with Snape, Harry had time to sneak into his four-poster in the peace and quiet of the empty dormitory, and put as many locking charms on the curtains as he knew.

Hurriedly, he took the diary out of his bag, set up an inkpot and retrieved a quill. He paused. What to write? Or should he write at all? It could possibly mess up the future. No, this Tom Riddle was just a memory.

In the end, Harry decided to try to chat with the Dark Lord at the same time avoiding writing his own name. So, turning the old, rumpled pages, he wrote a quick, _hello?_ Harry watched as the word slowly sunk into the aged pages. Just when he thought there would be no answer –

_Harry Potter?_ was the reply.

Harry immediately snapped the diary shut and threw it under the bedcovers, feeling shaken. How had Riddle known?

"Harry?" He heard, before hurrying to remove all the locking charms and leaping out of the four-poster and onto the floor with a grunt.

Sirius emerged from the doorway with a frown. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry muttered as Sirius helped him up.

"You sure? You don't look so good."

"Don't worry about me."

"But I like worrying about you."

"Suit yourself, but I'd rather you didn't worry about me."

"And I'd rather I did. Shall we go down to dinner? I'm starving."

Harry laughed and followed him towards the Hall. As they made their way through the common room, Harry's thoughts trailed back to the diary.

He would never write in it again.

Harry groaned. He hated mornings. He just wanted to sleep… and sleep… and…

"HARRY! SIRIUS!"

Harry suddenly attempted to jump up and instead, fell out of bed with a thump. He groaned again.

"Come on! We've all slept in! Lessons start in TWO MINUTES!"

"What?"

"TWO MINUTES! COME ON!' And with that, a half dressed James sped out of the room.

Harry managed a snicker as he thought of the reactions of the rest of the school when James turned up in his shirt and underwear, before groaning once more and dragging himself into his uniform.

Ten minutes and a detention from Professor Stevens later, Harry and Sirius slouched in their assigned seats in the dungeons. To everyone's disappointment, the professor had not only decided to set a project for the rest of the term, but had also assigned each of them to a partner; a partner who usually tended to be of the opposite house, attitude and level of skills in potion making. Whether it was a coincidence or not that Harry was put with Snape, he didn't know. What Harry did know, was that James was shooting glares at him from the opposite side of the room, whilst Sirius attempted to ignore everyone completely.

Harry sighed.

"What is wrong?" Snape asked as the lesson began.

Harry glanced at him before training his attention back to the task at hand for once. "Nothing," he muttered.

"Liar," Snape retorted. "You keep sighing. It is not _that_ hard."

Harry shook his head irritably and watched as Snape began to chop up different ingredients. "It looks confusing enough to me," he said finally.

"That is because you do not concentrate."

"What, and you do? How can anyone possibly concentrate when Mister Evil-Potions-Master-From-Hell attempts to bore them to death? Because I certainly can't."

Amusement flashed in the other boy's eyes. "You really ought to get private tutoring, then," he replied curtly.

Harry glared at him. "Is that a hint?" he muttered.

Snape smirked at him. "If I even attempted to tutor you, Black would probably result to chaos and anarchy."

Harry snorted, but silently had to agree. James would probably never speak to Harry again…

"Would you do it?" Snape asked abruptly.

"Do what?"

"Let me teach you? If it meant Black and Potter trying to kill you."

"Sirius would never try to kill me," Harry said quietly.

"Of course not," was the sharp reply.

Harry glared at him, before sighing. "If I was completely desperate," he began, "I probably would. But seeing as I don't really give a damn about Potions…"

"In that case, Mr. James, I suggest you receive private tutoring from Mr. Snape here twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays in the back classroom from seven 'til nine in the evening. If that won't increase your love for potions, then I don't know what will." Professor Stevens took time to give them a smug smirk before sauntering off to find someone else to torture.

"…"

"…"

"WHAT?" Harry finally spluttered after at least one minute. Snape rolled his eyes.

"Clever," he murmured amusedly, although Harry saw a gleam in his eye that had not been there before.

"Shut up," he muttered back, before packing his things up and leaving the classroom five minutes early.

"_WHAT_? NO WAY!"

"It's not like I have a choice, Sirius! It's not as if I ASKED to get lessons from him!"

"But – but its Snape, Harry! SNAPE!"

"I know who it bloody well is." Harry attempted to control the anger in his voice. When he was calm he said, "There's nothing I can do about it."

"But…"

"Sirius…"

The Animagus sighed. "Fine," he muttered. "Look, come to Hogsmeade with me this Saturday, we can get a break from all this."

Harry smiled, relieved. "Okay," he said. He cheered up as he remembered the last time they had gone together, when he was supposedly going with James instead of Sirius. Harry smiled. It had been one of the best days of his life. They had explored Hogsmeade, drank a bit, bought dinner, and drank a bit more…

Sirius interrupted his thoughts by kissing him. He wrapped his arms around the other boy's neck. The kiss seemed to go on forever, and Harry so wanted it to, but nothing ever lasts. They stood there, gasping for breath, heads together, for a while.

"Harry?" Sirius murmured.

"Hmm?" was the reply.

"I was thinking… you don't have to if you don't want to but… But I was thinking, since you know about us being Animagi and all, well… maybe you'd want to become one?"

Harry, completely taken by surprise, pulled back and stared at the other boy as if he had never seen him before.

"I would help, of course," Sirius rushed. "And James, he'll get over the Snape thing soon, and when he does…"

Harry smiled. Become an Animagus? Be like Sirius? Who wouldn't?

"Do you expect me to say no?" he asked incredulously.

Sirius laughed and kissed him. He contemplated Harry for a moment, before saying, "I reckon you'll be a bird," he said.

Harry looked up in surprise. "You do?"

Sirius grinned at him. "Come on, let's get started!"

Harry and Sirius spent the rest of that evening in the library, attempting to retrieve the books on Animagi Sirius had dumped there beforehand. Sirius explained that it had taken him, Peter and James at least half a year to become Animagi because they had spent a lot of the time looking for the right information. He reckoned it would take Harry around a couple of months to become one. He also explained that there were only a few different spells involved, and that most of the process was done with the mind. Harry could not have been more excited. He was going to become an Animagus! Forgetting the fact that it was illegal, they planned it and began the next day.

Meanwhile, Harry noticed that Lily seemed to be hanging around him a lot. Although he did not know why, he had his suspicions. He liked Lily and enjoyed talking to her; she was kind, smart, and funny – when she wasn't complaining about James. But when she started to talk to him at every available opportunity, he decided things were getting out of hand. What if she was falling for him? She was his _mother_! She couldn't like him like that! Harry decided to ignore it for now. There wasn't a lot he could do it about it, and ignoring her wouldn't be very nice, so he chose to cope with it for a while. James would go potty if he ever found out…

"Harry?"

Harry looked up from his seat in the library. "Hmm?" was his reply.

Sirius looked down at him with a frown on his face.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"Dumbledore was asking to see you after dinner. He said you would know what about."

Harry frowned. Had Dumbledore found a way of getting him back already? He didn't want to leave so soon…

"Yeah," he said finally. "Shall we go to dinner now, then?" He got up and began to pack his things away, when he noticed Sirius was still watching him. "What?" he asked, knowing exactly what. He didn't want to tell Sirius that he would have to leave; it would most likely break him, not to mention Harry himself. Sirius was having the same sort of suspicions as to why Dumbledore would want to speak to Harry.

"Why does he want to see you?" Sirius asked.

Harry shrugged. "Dunno," he lied.

Sirius' eyes narrowed. He took a step closer so that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. "I think you do know," he said, annoyed.

Harry sighed and closed his eyes wearily. He had only been there a few weeks; he didn't want to go…

"I have to return to my time eventually, Sirius. You know that."

"No, you don't," Sirius growled. "You can stay here, where You-Know-Who isn't trying to kill you all the time."

Harry winced. They rarely talked about his future, and when they did, it was usually about his friends, not Voldemort.

"I have to, they need me there –" he began.

"No, Harry. It's your life, not theirs. From what I've heard everyone in your time seems to be living your life for you," he said irritably. "It's up to you what you do!"

Harry sighed. "I still need to go and see him." Sirius seemed about to protest, but Harry interrupted him. "He might even just tell me how he can't find a way for me to get back, Sirius. Come on, let's go to dinner."

An hour or so later, Harry sat stiffly in one of the high backed guest chairs in Dumbledore's office. Was the man mad? Harry definitely thought so.

Dumbledore's idea consisted of using a certain dark, ancient potion, which, if made correctly, copies an image of oneself and materializes it in a certain time in the future or past, depending on how much so-and-so one used in the potion. There was a lot more information, and many side affects that Harry wasn't too keen on. Especially the "liable to growing extra body parts due to excessive amounts of certain ingredients contained in the potion", and to sum it all up, Dumbledore had decided that it would be too dangerous an idea anyway and that he would rather not risk it.

Harry wondered if there had been any point in him visiting at all.

He left silently for the Gryffindor common room on, "I'm quite sure we will find a way soon enough, Mr. James, meanwhile enjoy yourself while you can." And that damned twinkle. Luckily, Harry had managed to persuade Dumbledore to let him off detention for the night.

The next morning, Harry found himself under not only numerous pillows, quilts, the odd empty bed sheet and a random assortment of clothes, but a surprisingly heavy Sirius slumped on top of him. Unfortunately, the other boy had his arms tightly wrapped around Harry's waist, leaving poor, but not quite so poor, Harry no chance of escape. Well, at least he had an excuse for being late for lessons this time.

The entire morning was rather boring in Harry's opinion. Throughout breakfast he had to put up with Sirius' everlasting joy that Harry wasn't leaving, which he supposed he didn't mind, but then James began to make irritating comments on his disappointment about Harry's staying, which annoyed Harry to no end.

Why was James being so stupid? Harry had decided to speak to James later; he didn't want his dad mad at him.

After that, Harry sat through an hour of tiresome History of Magic lectures. Seriously, he decided, Binns needed to get a life.

What followed was not quite as dull, but would still hit boring on the level-of-excitement-meter, if there were one. When that lesson was over, Harry couldn't find Sirius, so he decided to return to the library and considered looking up time travel.

On the way there, he determined that finding a way to get back would only make him have to leave Sirius sooner, which he certainly didn't want. He then thought that it would be a good idea to find a way and just keep it a secret until he chose it was time to return. This got him thinking about not returning at all, and soon enough, Harry gave himself a painful, throbbing headache.

Irritated with himself, he slumped into a seat at the back of the library.

"Harry?" Someone was shaking him, but he didn't want to move; he was too tired…

"Harry? Harry, please wake up, you've been sleeping for ages."

"Huh?" Harry muttered tiredly. He then realised that he had his head wrapped in his arms on one of the library tables and had probably fallen asleep out of frustration. "Oh, sorry," he muttered, and looked bleary eyed into the kind, smiling face of Lily Evans.

"You okay?" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." He sat up and rubbed his eyes. _Damn_, he thought. _What time was it?_ Checking his watch, he groaned.

"What?" Lily asked.

"I've missed Potions. I'm bound to get a detention now."

"But it's not your fault! If you were tired…"

"Nah, it doesn't matter." He stood up and stretched, before looking down at Lily. Standing up, she was only an inch or two shorter than he was. Compared to Sirius, they were both midgets. Then again, compared to Sirius, everyone was.

Harry realised that now was the time to talk to Lily about James. "Lily…" he began, not quite knowing what to say.

"Yes?" she asked, looking hopeful.

"Would you… Would you do me a favour?" _Where is this going_, he wondered.

"Of course, Harry. What is it?"

"Well, James seems really depressed lately and… well, I think it's because of you." Lily opened her mouth to protest but Harry quieted her with a gesture of his hand. He then said, "The favour I'm asking is, well…" Harry scratched his head irritably. _How to say this?_ "I want you to go with him to the next Hogsmeade weekend."

"WHAT?" Lily exclaimed, looking shocked, but not disgusted, Harry noted.

He nodded incorrigibly. "I know, terrible isn't it? Sorry about my choice of words…"

She looked speechless, so Harry uttered, "It's up to you, y'know, but I think it would be a good shot, and I know James would love to." With that he left the library once again, leaving Lily shocked and speechless.

He supposed he had a reputation now for leaving people shocked and speechless. Shrugging it away, he headed for the broom shed.

Detention with Snape in the disastrous classroom was most likely the more exciting part of Harry's day.

Around quarter of an hour later, Harry calmed himself in the tranquillity of flight. The Hogwarts' grounds looked magnificent from above, especially at night. The tall black castle towered into a black, starry sky and a giant white moon loomed over the dark, jagged forest.

Harry flew down to the nearest clumps of trees, and noticed not too far away Hagrid's cabin. If there was one thing he missed from the future, it was Hagrid. It seemed odd that the half giant lacked his usual casualness with Harry, instead giving him polite nods in passing or ignoring him completely. Harry realised then that he might not be seeing _his_ Hagrid anytime soon.

Sighing, he jumped off his broom and skirted the edge of the forest. He should have bought his invisibility cloak, he thought, before remembering that the cloak currently belonged to James, who still wasn't speaking to him.

Harry abruptly stopped and turned. All was quiet. He moved on before suddenly coming to a halt. There it was again. Hissing. Harry hesitated. What could a harmless snake possibly do to him? He moved slowly towards the sound. Then it stopped. Harry stood completely still, before he heard, Stupid, foolish humans. What have I ever done to them? They deserve to be bitten. Oh, if only I had done it…

Hello, Harry greeted. He was rewarded with more ferocious hissing.

Leave, leave me, human! More humans here to ruin my home!

No, no. Wait! I'm not here to hurt you, or your home, Harry explained as the snake began to slither quietly away. Please come back.

What does this human want? It speaks of no harm, but how can I trust it? A human that can speak is suspicious….

When Harry realised that the snake had stopped to listen, he said, I just want to talk. Who ruined your home?

Pathetic, foolish humans! I did nothing to them and they poke their magic sticks into my home.

I'm sorry to hear that, Harry said. Is your home all right now?

No, it is ruined. I must make a new one away from prying humans.

You could stay with me, if you like, Harry offered, before realising what he was doing. _Well, why not?_ The snake would probably refuse anyway; it didn't seem too fond of Harry's species. I'd look after you, and no one could ruin your home.

Lies! This human wants to rid of me! Flee snakes! The humans want us no more!

No, no, wait…

Lies… And the snake was gone.

If snakes could shout, that's just what Harry did in Parseltongue. I'll talk to you again tomorrow!

Harry laughed as he made his way back to the castle. Make friends with a snake? The idea seemed very Slytherin of him….

"Where were you?" Sirius exclaimed as Harry wandered into the dormitory. Sirius sat, looking rather distressed, in his four-poster, glaring at Harry from the other side of the room. "Do you know how bloody worried I was? Do you?"

Harry smiled. Trust Sirius to worry about Harry being out late. "Sorry." He shrugged.

"Sorry? Sorry isn't good enough! I –"

He shut up when Harry kissed him. Five minutes later, Harry lay on Sirius' bed with said Animagus on top of him, driving his tongue into Harry's mouth and making him moan continuously. Sirius pulled away and glared at him. "Don't ever do that again," he ordered.

Harry rolled his eyes. "I'll never do it again," he promised.

"Good," Sirius said, before returning his tongue to Harry's mouth. "You missed your detention, you know."

Harry groaned.

Just then, an owl flew straight in through the window and landed on Sirius' bed. Both Harry and Sirius jumped up at the disturbance. The owl hooted importantly, before making its way towards Harry and sticking its leg out.

Harry scratched his head. Who would send him a letter? No one knew him here. And at this time of night?

"Open it," Sirius urged, most likely desperate to return to their previous positions. Harry laughed at him, before untying the letter from the owl's leg. The owl immediately sped out of the window, without bothering to wait for a reply. Harry shrugged inwardly and ripped open the letter. To his great surprise, it was from the Ministry of Magic. He quickly skimmed the letter, before passing it onto Sirius, who took it with a curious expression plastered over his face.

Overall, the letter was to do with Harry's "most unfortunate situation". It contained numerous apologies, mostly from the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries. They were sorry that they were unable to send him back to his own time, as the one means of returning Harry, consisted of using one of the forbidden pieces of equipment from – Harry could only guess – one of the dark, complicated rooms deep in the department. All in all, Harry was completely unable to go back to the future. Well, that was their opinion. Dumbledore was still working on it.

Harry hoped.

The next morning found Harry and Sirius skipping History of Magic and excitedly rummaging around amongst piles of books in the Room of Requirement. Sirius was ecstatic; they had already done the spells needed for the transformations and all Harry needed to do now, was learn how to use his mind to become a certain animal. The problem was, they didn't know _what_ animal.

"This is the hard bit," Sirius explained. "You need to know what animal you're going to transform into before you transform into it, and from there it's all easy."

"How did you and James do it, then?" Harry asked.

"Well, we sort of cheated…." Sirius said sheepishly. "We found this book in the library that matches people's characters to the animal they would supposedly be in the afterlife… And, well, we just figured it out soon enough."

"Where's the book now?" Harry asked eagerly. "Shall we look for it?"

"Um, there's a problem," Sirius said. "I sort of… lost it."

"You _lost_ it?"

"Yeah… if lost means rotting away in one of Filch's many drawers in his office."

Harry groaned. "Can't we just sneak in there and get it?"

"Nah, he's had everything charmed shut. But don't worry; we can still do it without the book. And anyway, we're getting through this way faster than I thought we would. It'll just take a bit more thinking than it did for me…"

"Sirius?"

"Hmm?"

"I really think I should start talking to James."

"How? He keeps ignoring you."

"I know, but… I kind of spoke to Lily…"

"What about?"

"Well, to keep it short, I asked her to go with James on the next Hogsmeade weekend."

"You're kidding, right? I bet she said no."

"Actually, I think she was considering it. But at the time I just asked her to think about it, and then I walked off. She hasn't given me an answer yet."

"Don't get your hopes up. Evans can't stand James."

"She fancies him."

"She does not."

"Seriously, she does. But you can't tell James."

"…"

"Sirius!"

"Okay, okay, I won't tell Jamsie that Evans is secretly drooling over him, but I think he ought to know."

"I don't."

"Why not?"

"I just don't. He'll find out soon enough. Sirius?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think… Do you think if I can them to go to Hogsmeade together…"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe James'll start talking to me again?"

"Probably. You'd be like… his saviour, or something."

"Hmm… I'll talk to Lily about it… see if she says yes."

"You do that."

"I will."

"Good."

"Thanks for your overly helpful advice."

"Yes, yes. Flattery in the morning. Sleep, now."

"Is that all you think about? Sleep?"

"And you. And food. And myself, of course."

"Surprise, surprise."

"Sleep."

"Okay, okay… Oh, damn…"

"What?"

"DAMN!"

"WHAT!"

"I missed detention! AGAIN!"

"Oh dear."

"What do you mean, 'oh dear'? McGonagall will kill me."

"So? You're not the only one."

"Yeah, but this is the second time I've missed it. This is only your first."

"I'm surprised McGonagall hasn't confronted you about it…"

"Yeah… She probably will tomorrow."

"Oh well. Time for sleep."

"Yeah…"

"Night, Harry…"

"Sweet dreams, Sirius…"

"SIRIUS!"

"WHAT?"

"COME ON! We're gonna be late! AGAIN!"

"OKAY, OKAY – I'M COMIN'!"

"Jeez. What took you so long?"

Sirius muttered and grumbled as they made their way down to the Hall. Suddenly, Harry spotted Lily. He quickly muttered to Sirius to save him a seat and headed towards Lily. When nobody was watching, he pulled her to the side.

"Hi," she said breathlessly.

"Hi," Harry said. "So what do you say? Will you go with him?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "I tried to tell you before but you just rushed out of there…"

But Harry wasn't listening. "YES!" he yelled. "Finally! Thanks, Lily," he said, before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek and rushing towards the Gryffindor table.

When he noticed Sirius looking at him from the other side, he mouthed, "SHE SAID YES." Sirius' jaw dropped, and Harry grinned. He watched as Sirius poked James in the side and asked him something. James' jaw dropped. Harry's grin grew wider. He watched as James suddenly jumped up and ran out of the hall, most likely in search of Lily.

Harry laughed, and made his way towards Sirius.

"I can't believe Evans is finally going out with Prongs," Sirius said between mouthfuls of bacon.

"Neither can I," Harry replied. "But call her Lily, Sirius. She's like, your best friend's girlfriend now."

Sirius managed to make a face around all the food. "Damn," he muttered. "Have you ever witnessed Evan's –" Harry glared. "_Lily's_, temper problem?"

"No, and I don't plan to."

"Well, I'm warning you now, she can get _scary_…"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Come on, we're gonna be late for Potions, again…"

"Hey – HARRY! Wait up." James ran breathlessly and caught up with Harry after Potions. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked, if Harry wasn't mistaken, nervously?

"Um, sure," Harry replied.

"In here," James said, and directed him to the nearest empty classroom.

"Erm…" Harry began, but James interrupted him.

"Look, I'm really _really_ sorry about lately, I was just being stupid. About this Snape thing…"

Harry shook his head and smiled. "It doesn't matter." He shrugged it off.

James' shoulders dropped in relief. "Phew," he said. "Sirius told me what you did, with Lily, and I just wanted to thank –"

He was interrupted when Harry laughed at him. "Don't worry about it; I was sort of getting sick of you two staring longingly at each other all the time."

James grinned at him. "Well, thanks," he said.

Harry shrugged again. "No problem," he said. "Shall we?" And they made their way chatting and laughing to the next lesson. _Overall_, Harry thought, _life wasn't so bad_.


	4. Chapter 4

HARRY'S NEW FRIEND

Harry woke up extremely early the next morning. Surprisingly, this nightmare was different to the other ones he had been having. It had been a strange flashback of the time he had retrieved the philosopher's stone, where, in the dream he hadn't been able to escape the end hall in which Voldemort waited. Harry guessed he would have to start using Dreamless Sleep. But where to get it?

Contemplating this, Harry managed to disentangle himself from Sirius' limbs and slip out of the four poster. He checked his watch; it was four am. Harry tiptoed towards James' bed and carefully opened his trunk. Quickly and silently, he pulled out the glossy invisibility cloak and left the Gryffindor common room. Not really knowing where he was going, Harry roamed the dark halls and corridors of the castle. His mind wandered towards Voldemort again, when he suddenly remembered the snake he had visited. As silently as he could, Harry made his way towards the Entrance Hall. Filch was still his own surly self in this time, and Harry didn't want to get caught. To Harry's great relief, Miss Norris didn't exist in his parents time.

As Harry left the castle, a rush of cold over swept him, and by the time he reached the forest, he was shivering bitterly. He made his way to the place he guessed the snake had been last time; a couple of yards away from Hagrid's cabin. It wasn't too dark, and the trees rustled noisily. Other than that, all was silent.

Harry stood still, listening. No hissing, this time. He crept as quietly as he could into the first clumps of trees; he didn't want to scare the snake off by making too much noise. Harry shivered, and the thought came to him that he must look really stupid hovering around the edge of the forbidden forest at half four in the morning, waiting for a snake that probably wasn't there. But then a sound of rustling leaves not far off caught his attention. He wandered towards the sound, before-

Stay back! Leave my home alone, sneaking human.

Harry sighed in relief; he wouldn't be standing around in the cold all morning after all. Hello again he said.

It is the speaking human again. But what does it want?

I just came to see how you were doing Harry explained. I'm not here to hurt you.

The human could be lying, better to not trust it the snake said to itself.

Harry could hear it start to slither away. He hadn't seen it yet, and pondered on what it looked like. Please come back he said. I only want to talk. What do you look like?

The snake stopped, as if contemplating itself. I do no know, human.

Then come here Harry beckoned. My name is Harry. What is yours?

The snake slowly came towards him. He knelt down. The snake was about two metres away when it stopped. I do not have a name it said.

Harry frowned. Why not?

I have never needed one.

Then what do your friends call you?

We do not have friends, unlike humans. We are too busy to have friends

What about your family, what do they call you?

They do not call me anything. We use signals to communicate. I told you, human; we do not need names.

'Well, that's a new bit of information,' Harry thought. He supposed Hermione would probably find it interesting.

Can I give you a name? Harry asked the snake.

It raised itself to his height (he was still kneeling) and said why?

Harry shrugged. I want to he said. He thought back to all the books he had read on parselmouths; they had had many names of infamous snakes who befriended humans. Voldemort and Nagini had been in there.

The snake was watching him, waiting for an answer.

So I know what to call you Harry explained.

Fine

He thought back to all the snake names, but he couldn't remember any. Then a thought came to him. Tom. He offered the name to snake.

It cocked its head to the side, as if contemplating Harry, who still couldn't make out what the snake looked like in the shadows.

Tom it repeated.

Harry smiled. He wasn't entirely sure, but to him the snake seemed pleased at having a name. It agreed to keep it.

I still don't know what you look like Harry said.

Tom slithered out of the shadows towards Harry, whose eyes widened as he got full view of its body. The snake was quite small, at least half a metre long. Tom was very stunning, Harry thought. He (Harry decided he would have to refer to it as a he now), was a dark shade of grey, with a striking dark zigzag pattern trailing from head to tail. Also, a line of dark oval spots positioned along the sides of his body made Tom look very attractive, as well as the black X shape placed on his head.

You're beautiful Harry complimented him, smiling.

If snakes could blush that was certainly what Tom was doing. It looked sideways at Harry as if to say thanks.

Harry grinned. I'll bring you a mirror next time.

A mirror? Tom asked, confused.

You'll see. Harry checked his watch. It was almost five; he had ages. I know he said suddenly. Why don't I take you up to the castle now? There's a mirror in the dorm somewhere.

The snake turned and slithered a few metres away. No it said. I must protect my home. Then it was gone.

Harry sighed, but returned to the castle. Where snakes always this courteous? He wondered.

"Come on, Harry. It really is not that hard."

"It is! How do you do it without even looking at the instructions?"

"I DO look at the instructions! I do it at the beginning of the lesson when the Professor is speaking."

Harry sighed irritably. He was having his first private lesson with Snape, who he decided was a very impatient tutor. Snape was attempting to teach him how to make some sort of weak veritaserum; a potion that makes one say their deepest, darkest secret. Harry had already forgotten what it was called. He asked Snape.

"Oh, for- look, Harry. Let's start this again, shall we?" Snape left the small backroom to the classroom to return with a clean, empty cauldron.

"Right," he said. "This," he pointed to the black pot. "Is a cauldron."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I know that," he said incredulously.

Snape ignored him and picked up the book they were using. "This," he said slowly, as though trying to make the information imprint itself in Harry's mind. "Is a potions making book."

"Look-" Harry began.

Snape held up a hand to silence him. He opened the book at a random page. "These," he said, pointed to the script at the top of the page. "Are the instructions on how to make a potion, and these," he indicated a list below the script. "Are the ingredients needed to make a potion with."

Harry sighed impatiently.

Snape handed the book to Harry, who was petulantly glaring at him.

"Now, go and find all of those ingredients," he said, indicated a list on a page he had chosen.

"What!" Harry said. "No!"

Snape crossed his arms and narrowed his gaze.

Harry sighed, glowered at him miserably, and went to survey the slimy looking ingredients that littered the shelves.

A while later he threw the ingredients down on the desk Snape was sitting at watching him, and slumped into the chair next to him.

The other boy looked at his watch. "That took you exactly… sixteen point eleven minutes."

Harry scowled at him. "You're meant to be teaching me, not scolding me," he argued.

Snape sighed, although he didn't seem irritated. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself. "What a shame," he said derisively, and once again handed the book to Harry. Much to Harry's dismay, Snape then told him to read out the Instructions.

Forty minutes or so and a bubbling green potion later, Harry let out a sigh of relief as they finished.

"That wasn't so hard," he said, feeling quite pleased with himself.

Snape rolled his eyes. "That was levelled as a fourth year potion. You are in your sixth year," he said.

"So? That's the first time I've ever made a potion without spilling it or putting in the wrong ingredient or blowing up a classmate or-"

Snape laughed at him. "You really are hopeless," he said.

Harry stared at him.

"What?" Snape asked.

Harry shook his head. Not only had he made a potion without any mistakes, he had actually heard Snape LAUGH. Harry checked his watch. His lesson with Snape had ended fifteen minutes ago. He stood up and stretched, when he remembered he still had detention to go to. He asked Snape whether McGonagall had said anything about Harry missing two detentions.

"Yes," Snape answered. "And because you have missed the last two detentions, I didn't have to go either."

Harry stared at him. "Fair enough," he said finally.

"Yes."

"Shall we go now, then?"

"Why? We don't have to be there for another half hour."

"Yeah, but I need you to be there so you can tell the rest of the school how tragically I died."

Snape smirked at him. "Fair enough," he said, mimicking Harry. They made their way towards McGonagall's office.

"Well, well, Mr James. You have come at last."

"Sorry Professor, I… forgot."

"You forgot? Mr. James, have I not already made it clear that I do not accept foolhardiness such as forgetting to attend a well deserved detention?"

Harry winced. "I know, I'm-" He attempted to cover a yawn, "sorry, professor."

McGonagall frowned. "You should not be tired, Mr. James. Didn't you get enough sleep last night?"

"Um…" he said. Should he lie?

"Professor," Snape said, who had been standing quietly next to Harry. "He has been yawning all through our lesson."

Harry scowled. McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "Your lesson?" She asked.

"Professor Stevens is making Snape tutor me in potions after class," Harry said, in attempt to change the subject.

She seemed surprised at this for a moment, but it was quickly gone. "But that still doesn't explain to me why you seem so tired, Mr. James."

Harry struggled over what to say.

"You don't LOOK tired."

"He's using obscuring charms, professor," Snape said.

Harry scowled, anger flaring up at him. He turned to Snape. "How do you know?" He demanded.

"I saw you casting them a couple of days ago, before breakfast. You were hurrying towards the Main Hall."

That was true; it had been one of the days Harry had woken up late.

"Mr. James," McGonagall said, bringing Harry back. "Take off these obscuring charms Mr. Snape seems to think you have."

Harry scowled, and did nothing.

"Mr. James," McGonagall warned.

Harry signed and did as he was told, causing both McGonagall and Snape to gasp.

"Harry," McGonagall said, quite breathlessly. "I suggest you visit the infirmary this instance, before you fall to the ground."

"There's no point," Harry muttered.

"Why is there no point? You need sleep."

"There's no point because I'll just wake up in the middle of the night anyway," he said bitterly. He received questioning looks. "I get nightmares," he said slowly.

McGonagall frowned. She turned to Snape. "Consider yourself lucky, Mr. Snape. Not only have you missed two days' detention because of this boy's forgetfulness, you will no longer have to attend the rest of your weeks worth of detentions." She looked at him sternly. "Although, just because I am letting you off, it does not mean you shouldn't expect severe punishment in the future."

"Yes, professor," Snape answered blankly.

"Now," McGonagall said. "Would you be so kind as to fetch Mr. Potter and Mr. Black before their detention starts? It would be most unfair to keep them in their punishment." She turned to Harry as Snape left quietly.

"Harry," she said, frowning again. "Why have you not told anyone about this? I am sure there is something we can do about it."

"There isn't," Harry said shortly. He glanced at the professor, and knew what she was about to ask. "I can't tall you what my nightmares are about because they are to do with the future," Harry said. "And Voldemort," he added quietly.

McGonagall seemed to gasp, and Harry guessed he didn't say it quietly enough.

"Mr. James, in the Hospital Wing - NOW. I will be there in a couple of minutes; tell Poppy I sent you."

Harry did as he was told without a word.

The Hospital Wing looked the same as it always did.

Harry woke up feeling drowsy, and disliked the idea opening his eyes. Even so, he opened them to the blinding white of the Infirmary. Sighing, he rolled over – to find Sirius sleeping in the chair next to his bed. Smiling, Harry gently shook the boy awake.

Sirius groaned uncomfortably. "Wha-" he began, when he saw Harry looking up at him. "Harry!"

"Hi," Harry said weakly. He felt so tired.

"How could you not tell me?" Sirius asked desperately, leaning on the bed. "You've been in here for almost three days!" he exclaimed.

Harry looked at him in surprise. "Have I? What's the time?"

Sirius glanced at his watch. "It's almost lunch," he said, stretching. "What do you remember?"

Harry shrugged. "Just McGonagall sending me here and then Promfrey forcing this stuff down my throat. Then I fell asleep." Harry wondered what the stuff had been. He asked Sirius.

"Well, according to Snape-"

"Snape?"

"Yeah, he was here with McGonagall-"

"You didn't do anything to him, did you?"

"'fraid not. But according to him Promfrey gave you this weird potion – I can't remember what it was called – which put you in a coma. It's meant keep you comatose until you recover the amount of sleep you missed."

"Well, it didn't work because I still feel so bloody tired."

"Yeah, Snape said that would happen. It's just the after affect." Sirius shrugged. "It should wear off soon," he said.

"Phew," Harry said, relieved. He lay back into the pillows.

Sirius frowned at him. "Why didn't you tell me, Harry? I could've done something."

Harry shook his head; he was too tired to argue. He closed his eyes. "Sorry," he said. He heard Sirius sigh.

"S'ok," the boy said. "But seriously, you looked terrible."

Harry let out a short laugh. He opened his eyes. "Any better now?" He asked Sirius, who grinned at him.

"Yep, you look beautiful, as always."

Harry felt the rush to his cheeks, and smiled. 'Not as beautiful as Sirius, though,' he thought. 'Then tell him so,' Harry told himself. And Harry did.

Sirius smirked at him. "I know, Harry, I know. No one can resist me."

Harry rolled his eyes.

A few hours later, Harry sat in the Room of Requirement, Sirius watching him.

"But what are you making?" Sirius asked him for the fifth time.

"It's a big, big secret, Sirius," Harry said, rolling his eyes. Sometimes, people just couldn't accept the truth. Harry sat with a cauldron in front of him, counting the ingredients he had collected from outside and from Stevens' storerooms. Getting them was easy enough, but making it? Harry could try.

"But, Harry-"

Harry sighed dramatically. He couldn't tell Sirius what it was, because he wanted it to be a surprise. It was the scar treatment for Sirius' back, and he was currently stuck on which ingredients to use first. Then a thought came to him – Snape! Snape could help him, if he asked. But then, would Snape do it if he knew it was for Sirius?

"You'll find out soon enough, dearest."

Sirius continued to whine, and Harry continued to inwardly complain. The directions for making the potion were too complicated. Sighing, he packed the stuff away and decided he would ask Snape for help later.

"Are you finished?" Sirius asked him, and without waiting for an answer – "Come on, let's see if we can figure out your animagus form by the end of the day."

Harry smiled, his excitement immediately growing.

"Hey, wait a minute – Sirius?"

"Yeah?" Sirius asked from the door.

"What day is it?"

"Erm… Sunday, I think. Why?"

"We've missed Hogsmeade!"

Sirius smiled at him. "Don't worry about it; we'll go next weekend. Come on; let's get those books from the dorm."

Half an hour later, Harry and Sirius sat over piles and piles of books on animagi back in the Room of Requirement.

"But that can't be right!"

"Argh, this is so confusing."

Sirius sat back and pushed his hair behind his ears. "Right," he said. "We both think you're going to be a bird, right? And we've picked the bird we think suits your characteristics, right? So what's wrong with it!"

Harry sighed. "I don't know," he said, exasperated.

"Let's try again. Try really, really hard this time."

"I WAS trying really hard!" But he tried again. Closing his eyes, Harry imagined the wings on himself, the claws, th- He opened his eyes. Sirius shook his head. Closing them again, Harry's thought's wandered towards Tom in the forest. When should he visit him again? He needed to take the mirror next time… Harry heard a gasp. Opening his eyes, Harry noticed Sirius staring at him, shocked.

What was wrong? He tried imagining being a bird and heard Sirius gasp at him again. What on earth? Harry attempted asking him but nothing would come out of his mouth.

"Woah," Sirius said.

"What?" Harry wanted to say, but again, nothing came out of his mouth. What was happening? Had it worked?

"Harry, turn back for a minute."

Turn back?

"Think of yourself as a human," Sirius explained.

Ah. Harry imagined himself sitting opposite Sirius. Wondering whether it worked, he asked, "what?"

Sirius was gaping at him. "You have TWO animagus forms!"

Harry stared at him. "What!" He spluttered finally. "What am I?"

"A snake and a-"

"A snake!"

"And a swan. Harry, you're a BLACK swan. I've never seen one before. Well, not until now."

"A- a black swan? And a snake? What type of snake?" Harry asked, astounded. He had two animagus forms? But the snake didn't suit his characteristics. Then Harry thought about it - Voldemort. Harry had part of Voldemort in him, and he was a parselmouth. 'Figures,' he thought.

"I'm not sure," Sirius said with a frown. "I've seen one of them before. Last summer, at James' house. It bit James, and he got really ill. We had to take him to St. Mungo's to dissect the poison."

"I'm poisonous?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Don't worry; it's you, remember? You won't bite anyone unless you want to; you have complete control over your animagus form. Forms," he corrected himself. "Besides, it might come in useful."

"I guess," Harry said. He was still amazed at the fact that he had TWO animagus forms. And a black swan? He hadn't seen a black swan before, only white ones.

"Hey, lets look it up, since we're here. We're in the Room of Requirement, right?" Sirius summoned up a book and flicked through it, while Harry attempted to digest the information.

"Right, snakes… snakes… ah! Here you are."

Harry waited as Sirius read whatever was in the book.

"Ok…" Sirius voiced. "You are… you are a..." He looked up at Harry. "Turn back into your snake form; there are like thousands of different snakes here."

Harry frowned. "How?" he asked.

"Well, what were you thinking when you transformed?"

Harry thought back. "I was thinking about my friend in the forest… He's a snake," he added. Sirius gaped at him. Harry shrugged.

"So… think about him again, then."

And Harry did.

"Hey, you did it."

Harry looked at Sirius from low down on the ground. He was a snake? Turning his head, he gaped at what he saw. At least, he felt like he was gaping.

"Wait," Sirius said, and conjured up a mirror. He turned it to face the poisonous snake sitting in front of him, his friend.

Harry stared. Reflected back at him was a half metre long, black, red and white striped, small headed snake. Harry thought he looked rather cute, if snakes could look cute. He looked up at Sirius, who grinned at him, before turning back to the book. As he flicked through the pages, sometimes glancing at Harry as if comparing his look to one in the book, Harry made his way towards Sirius and began to somewhat slither up his arm. Sirius looked at him wide eyed. Harry grinned inwardly. He travelled around the boys' neck and rested his head on Sirius' shoulder.

"Erm… Harry," Sirius uttered. "I'd really appreciate it if you didn't do that. I don't want you to accidentally bite me, or something…"

Harry rolled his eyes, but generously returned to the floor. Sirius went back to flicking through the book. "Aha!" he said suddenly. Harry looked up.

"You are a… a… milk snake! No, wait… Um…"

Harry changed back into his usual form. "What?" he asked.

"Sirius kept his eyes on the book. "Did you know," he said, and reading from the book –"that 'the milksnake is not venomous. It does, however, mimic the coloration, markings and even behaviour of venomous coral snakes and is easily confused with them in parts of its range'." Sirius looked up from the book. "So, you're either a dangerous coral snake or a harmless milksnake," he said.

"How do we find out which one?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. Why don't you ask your friend?" Sirius joked.

"That's an idea," Harry said.

Sirius stared at him. "I was joking," he answered.

"I wasn't. I'll ask him. You can come along."

Sirius shrugged and grinned. "Alright," he agreed. "Will you turn back into a swan, for me? It looks so cool."

"It?" Harry asked him, amused, but he complied. Sirius sent him a grin, and picked up the mirror.

'Woah,' Harry thought. Modesty aside; he was definitely stunning. Completely black, and there on his forehead in white, for the whole world to see, was his scar. It had been on his snake form as well, but wasn't as blatant. He was rather big, too. Strong enough to break Sirius' arm, he decided. Not that he wanted to. Harry remembered the time he had been at the park with his Aunt Petunia and Cousin Dudley. Petunia had been telling Dudley not to go near the swans in the pond as they had the power to break his arm. At the time, Harry had silently willed Dudley to go as near the swans as he could, but to no avail.

Harry glanced back at Sirius, who was rummaging through one of the books again. Sirius then read out, "'black swans are found throughout Australia with the exception of Cape York Peninsula, and are more common in the south. They prefer larger salt, brackish or fresh waterways and permanent wetlands, requiring 40 meters or more of clear water to take off', blah, blah, blah." Sirius grinned at him again. "Cool," he said. "You're from Australia. I wonder if Australian swans have accents?"

Harry rolled his eyes and resumed his human form. He smiled. "Thanks, Sirius," he said, and he meant it.

The other boy shrugged. "No problem. I got to see a black swan."

Harry laughed at him and they left the room. As they made their way back to the dormitory, Harry wondered what Ron and Hermione's responses would be when they saw his animagus forms.

Once they were back in the dormitory, Sirius jumped onto Harry's bed and dragged Harry in with him, shutting the curtains. He yawned and stretched, falling back into the pillows. Harry made himself comfortable sitting on Sirius' stomach, making the other boy grunt.

"You may have the weight of a very small twig, but you're still bloody heavy."

Harry raised an eyebrow at him. "And how does that work out?" he asked amusedly.

Sirius yawned again, and not to Harry's surprise; ignored the question. Suddenly Sirius leaned up on his elbows and gave Harry a stern look. "Remember Harry, if you have any nightmares, you need to TELL me. Otherwise I can't do anything about it!"

Harry sighed. "You can't do anything about it anyway, Sirius. But alright, if I have any nightmares, I'll tell you." He slid off of Sirius' stomach and lay down beside him. Sirius immediately rolled on top of him.

Once they were face to face, Sirius waited a minute, before asking, "Harry?"

"Hmm?"

"How far have you been with a guy?"

Harry stared at him, before answering slowly, "not very far…" He then added suggestively, "but you're always welcome to present some of your ideas…"

Sirius grinned and kissed him. It was a long, mind-blowing kiss that had Harry moaning and shifting around.

Sirius then said, "So you don't mind if I spend the night shagging you into the mattress? It would be a great way to get rid of your nightmares, you know?"

Harry felt a grin forcing its way out of him. "Be my guest…" he offered.

Harry didn't get any sleep that night.

The next morning, Harry staggered tiredly out of the dorm with one thing on his mind - look for Snape. He hadn't seen him since the time McGonagall had sent Harry to the Hospital Wing. No one in the dormitory was up yet, and only a few people littered the Gryffindor Common Room.

Inside, Harry was still excited at his new animagus forms, but managed to push that out of his mind as he wandered towards the Main Hall. Maybe Snape was in there? In Harry's time the professor was always up early.

To Harry's relief at not having to visit the Slytherin Common Rooms, which he had no idea the location of, Harry noticed Snape eating amongst the few Slytherins in the hall. As he made his way Slytherin table, scowling faces turned to look at him.

'What a cheery table,' he thought, just as Snape turned round to look at him in surprise, which he quickly masked.

Snape stood when Harry reached him.

"Hi," Harry said. "Can I speak to you for a moment?" He glanced at Malfoy who was watching him warily with narrowed eyes from the other side of the table.

"Touch your wand Malfoy and you'll be spending the rest of the day as a ferret," Harry threatened, causing Malfoy to look away, scowling.

Snape's eyes widened at the threat, but he nodded and followed Harry out of the hall. Once they were in an empty classroom, Snape muttered, "Do you know what you've just done? You'll be unconscious by the end of breakfast."

Harry smiled at him amusedly. "No, I won't," he said. "Malfoy won't do a thing."

Snape eyed him critically. "How do you know?" He asked suspiciously.

Harry grinned and shrugged. "Let's just say I've sorted a few things out with Malfoy," he said. "And Bellatrix," he added. "And Avery," he added again.

Snape stared at him.

"Basically every Slytherin in the school," Harry said, eyeing Snape. "Except professor Stevens, of course," he finished.

Snape looked amused.

"Anyway," Harry continued. "I dragged you from the hall to ask you for a favour," he explained.

"Oh?" Snape replied, looking interested.

"Yep, but you probably won't do it so I don't know why I'm asking," he said, inwardly cursing himself.

He turned to leave when Snape suddenly stepped forward and took a hold of Harry's arm. "Tell me," he said quietly.

"It's to do with Sirius," Harry explained. He noticed Snape's eyes narrow, but got no other reaction from the teenager. "Shall I go on?" Harry asked, doubting.

Snape contemplated him. "Tell me what it is, and I'll consider it."

Harry explained to Snape about how he was trying to concoct something for the damage to Sirius' back, and how he needed help making the potion.

"You know how I'm useless at potion making," he continued. "I need your help," this time Harry guessed he sounded pretty desperate.

Snape had that blank look on his face again. "Alright, Harry," he said quietly. "I'll help you. We can make it during our next private lesson."

Harry sighed with relief and smiled at the other boy. Really, Snape wasn't so bad. "Thanks," he said, pleased, and rushed from the room.

Harry needed to find Remus; Remus would tell him when Sirius' birthday would be, without any questions.

That evening, Harry made his way to Dumbledore's office. The day had gone slowly, beginning and ending with Harry's less exciting subjects, but Harry didn't mind; he was in too good a mood to be bothered about anything.

Harry reached the gargoyle, and after five minutes and many sweet-names later, Harry sat in one of the comfy chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk.

The man offered Harry a lemon drop for the fifth time, whilst contemplating Harry's request.

"Please, professor," Harry asked desperately. "I really want to stay for Sirius' birthday, and I'll go straight after that with no ado. Please? Have you even found a way to send me back or are you just doing this to torment me?"

Dumbledore chuckled, delighted at Harry's small tirade. "Of course, you may stay, Harry. And no, I have not yet found another way to send you back."

Harry sighed with relief. "Thanks, professor," he said gratefully. Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a while.

"I believe Mr. Potter has invited you and Sirius to stay at his house for Christmas. Is that so?"

"It is, professor," Harry replied, wondering how on earth the old wizard could have known.

"Well, whether you go or not is your decision, but if you do, I'll let you know if I find anything. And," he added, "I'll make sure to tell you AFTER Sirius' birthday," he said, smiling.

Harry returned the smile. "Thanks, professor," he repeated, and left the room.

For Harry, life seemed to be on his side for the next few days. Until something happened. It hadn't been Harry's intention to come across an unconscious Snape in the Great Hall after dark, and it certainly wasn't his intention to find bruises covering the side of Snape's face and rips in his clothes.

He noticed it with shock as he turned the boy over. Who would do this? His thoughts trailed to the marauders as Harry cast a feather-light charm on Snape and heaved him up. 'Sirius wouldn't do this,' he thought. 'Not after last time.' But Harry wasn't sure. He guessed he would find out when Snape resumed consciousness.

Sighing, and realising he would get into more trouble if he was found wandering the halls after dark, Harry took Snape to the Room of Requirement instead of the Hospital Wing. When he entered the room he found it full of medicines, potions and an overall mini infirmary. Placing Snape in one of the comfortable looking - chairs, he cast a warming spell on the boy and cleaned his cuts and bruises using numerous charms. Snape looked strangely at peace in his sleep. No scowling, sneering, no odd blank looks.

Harry watched him for a moment, before casting a reviving spell on his friend. Friend. Harry considered Snape a friend now. He contemplated this as the other boy slowly woke up and took in his surroundings, looking confused.

"What happened?" He muttered slowly.

Harry frowned. "I was hoping you would tell me," he said.

Snape looked at him for the first time. "Harry?" he asked, even more confused. He looked around again. "Where are we?"

"The Room of Requirement," Harry muttered absently; his mind returning to Sirius.

Snape looked at him as though he was mad, before resuming his usual expression; blankness. "Potter and Black seem to have a problem with me communicating with you in any way," he said sourly.

Harry groaned. "Not again?" He said, more to himself. Harry couldn't understand why Sirius would pester Snape again, even when he knew how Harry felt about it. Harry sighed.

"Let's go to McGonagall," he said suddenly.

Snape scowled. "No; all that going to McGonagall will do is give them more reason to torment me."

Harry stood; his decision made. "They won't once she's finished with them." He yawned suddenly. "We'll go in the morning."

Snape stood, looking irritated. "No," he said. "I'm not going to McGonagall."

"Fine, but I am. I'm fed up with it." With that, Harry turned and left the room.

Snape ran after him. "There is no point, Harry," he argued. "They will just keep doing it."

"That's what you think," Harry said over his shoulder.

Snape must have known that Harry wouldn't change his mind because he said, "Fine. But if they do it again, you will be the blame."

"Whatever," Harry muttered. Did anyone appreciate his help?

"Harry."

Harry stopped and turned with a sigh.

"Don't do this," Snape said, looking somewhat desperate.

"Why?" Harry asked incredulously. "Look," he said, seeing Snape's expression. "I won't tell McGonagall. But the next time they do it, I'm telling every professor in this school to get it into their heads to do something about it."

Snape groaned. "That is even worse," he muttered.

Harry glared at him. "I'll even tell Dumbledore," he added nonchalantly. "Goodnight, Snape." He turned to go when Snape took a hold of Harry's arm.

"Harry… we have been working together for weeks now. Can you at least call me by my first name?"

Harry looked at him in surprise. Be on first name terms with Snape? Why not!

"Sure…" he said. And then grinning slightly, he added, "Severus." He noticed something flicker in the other boy's eyes before he turned and left for the Gryffindor dormitory.


End file.
